A New Beginning for a Human
by Vento the dragon
Summary: Alexander, a normal human teenager, has his life changed forever when he was dragged into the spyro universe. Unsure what to do, he saves a red dragoness, and is thrown into a new adventure. But will he save this world, or destroy it.
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone, Vento the dragon is back with a new story. After the positive feed back I got from my previous story, I thought I'd try something new. This story doesn't have anything to do with 'The Vento chronicles', since I'm going to have it take place during ANB. The main character could been seen as a self insert, which I know so authors don't like. Oh and to anyone who doesn't like my story, don't read it. Now without further a due, let the story begin...**

**A New Beginning for a Human**

**Prologue**

In a town in England, a young teenage boy was walking to his school. This boy was about 15 years old, and was wearing a white tee shirt and dark blue jeans. He was an average build for his age. His hair was short, yet slightly scruffy. This boy didn't look all that unusual on the outside, but he had a cold personality. In his time at his school, he had made a bit of a reputation of being known as 'Big Al'. But this title didn't mean he was a strong, thuggish type of person, in fact he was quite the opposite. He was clever and he also knew when to look for fights and when to calmly walk away. At his school he didn't have many friends. Granted there were people he got on well with at school, but he didn't count them as friends. Most of them were just fools in his eyes.

The boy walked into his school. It happened to be a day when it was non-uniform, so he came in what he normally wore. As he walked through the path that led towards the 'upper school' part of the school, he saw many other people along the way. He eventually arrived where he would normally stand with his friends, as they waited for the time when they would register. As it happened, he was the first one to arrive there, so he simply stood waiting for everyone else.

After about half an hour, five people arrived, and stood with him. They all talked about various things, like the TV programs they'd seen, the latest relationship developments etc. They boy stayed silent during their conversation, as he found them very uninteresting. Instead he idly looked up into the sky.

"_I wish something interesting would happen," _he thought.

He suddenly saw that the sky was beginning to part slightly. The boy narrowed his eyes, wondering if he had imagined what he was seeing. The sky at this point now had a large hole in it, which just so happened to be stationed above the school. Immediately, a purple light descended rapidly from the hole, and engulfed the school in light. Panic suddenly ensued, as everyone began running in different directions, trying to get out of the light. The boy however, simply stood where he was, looking up at the sky calmly.

"_That works, I guess," _he thought before the light began to recoil. When it did, it also slowly dragged the school up into the sky with it. As soon as the building hit the top of the sky, a blinding white light erupted from the sky, engulfing everything and everyone around the boy. And the world suddenly went black around the boy, as he lost consciousness.

**And thats were I'll end this chapter. Can anyone guess what game I've taken a sequence from. I'll update when ever i can write. also I may decide later on to change the rating. Please Read and Review my story as always. Until next time, bye...**


	2. Fiore

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter of this story. In this chapter, the boy comes across a red dragon. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 1: Fiore**

The first thing the boy knew when he awoke was that he was lying face down on the ground. He sat up, groaning, and looked around. He could see trees all around him.

"Great, who pulled me out into the forest?" he said sarcastically, in a Yorkshire accent. It was then that he remembered the beam of light, which had felt as though it was pulling him. "Well there's no sense in sitting here," the boy said, standing up.

He took a step forward, and his foot hit something. He looked down and saw a sword lying on the ground inside a scabbard. He picked up the sword and examined it. From the knowledge of swords that he had, he knew that the slight curve in the blade meant that it was a katana, a Japanese sword. When he unsheathed the sword, he noticed that it felt different from normal Katana swords he'd held. He moved his hand slightly, and the sword split in two. The boy's eyes widened at this, thinking he'd somehow broken the sword, before he realised that the sword was actually what was known as a Split Blade Katana.

"This could come in handy, if only I knew how to use two swords instead of one," the boy said, sheathing the sword, tying it onto his back, and looking around.

As far as he could see there were trees. Looking to the left, he saw a river running past him. He decided to head down along the side of the river. After he had been walking for a few minutes, he heard a rustling in front of him. He immediately dived behind a tree for cover, and then looked out from behind the safety of the tree. What he saw next surprised him. From under a bush, a creature appeared. This creature looked like a dog in shape, but had red scales, two yellowish horns, an orange underbelly and a blunt leaf like object on the base of its tail. The boy looked at the creature with an open mouth. He had only ever heard of anything like this in myths.

"Is that a...dragon?" he said quietly, still watching the 'dragon'.

The dragon walked over to the river, and began to drink water out of it. Just then, the boy heard the sound of movement behind him. He looked round to see what looked like apes to him, walking slowly towards the dragon. As the boy wasn't in their view, he quickly shifted around the tree, so as to not get spotted by either the dragon or the apes. He carefully moved from tree to tree, until he was level with the dragon.

By this time the dragon had noticed the apes shambling towards it. It turned to look at them, getting into a fighting stance. When the apes didn't stop moving towards it, the dragon began to slowly back away from the apes. The boy could see that the dragon was backing itself into a corner, because it was slowly moving towards a tree. It didn't seem to notice the tree, until its back leg stepped underneath a tree root, and became stuck. The dragon yelped and looked down at its leg. The Apes laughed at this.

"You're not getting away from us this time, Fiore," the larger ape said menacingly.

The dragon known as Fiore tried desperately to free its leg from under the tree root, but failed. "Someone, help me," it screamed, in a female voice.

"_A female dragon, that's interesting," _the boy thought as he watched what was happening. The apes were all laughing at Fiore.

"Silly dragon, no one's going to save you now," the large ape said, grinning evilly as it motioned for two apes to get the dragon.

"Oh really?" the boy said without thinking.

The apes suddenly looked around, looking puzzled, trying to see who had spoken. When they couldn't locate the voice, they simply lunged at Fiore. She closed her eyes, and waited for them to hit her. What she heard instead was the sound of movement to her left, and then the sound of slashing and the screams of dying apes. When she dared to open her eyes, she saw a boy standing in front of her, holding the sword as if he had just slashed with it. On the ground lay the bodies of two apes.

"Who are you? Who dares defy the might of Cynder's army?" the large ape yelled. The boy took a stepped towards the apes, bringing his sword down to his side as he did so.

"The name's Alexander; you are...?" the boy said calmly, staring at the large ape. Fiore watched what was happening in front of her with wide eyes.

"_What is this creature that's helping me, it looks like an ape," _she thought, trying to work out what 'Alexander' was.

The ape however simply stared down at him, since it was a good few inches higher than Alexander was. "You don't need to know that, because you'll be a corpse in a moment," it said, motioning for the apes to attack the boy.

Alex simply stared calmly at them as they walked slowly towards him. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do, but when an ape was within striking distance, he quickly swung his sword to the left, and managed to slash its neck, killing it instantly. Seeing this, the rest of the apes all ran at him. Alex took each one on as it came into view, slashing at each one in turn.

"Blimey; who knew I was this good with a sword?" he said, as one of the apes ran towards him and leaped at him. Luckily Alex had good reactions, and side stepped out of the way, causing the ape to slam into a tree. "Nice try," Alex said smugly as he stabbed the ape through the back with his sword. He turned round to look back at the large ape, who had been watching him fighting.

"I guess if you want something doing, you have to do it yourself," it muttered, before charging at Alex. Alex tried to slash the ape's neck with his sword, but the ape blocked it with its club. Alex tried to hit it many more times, but the ape always managed to block his attacks. Eventually the ape grabbed Alex's sword and punched him in the face. Alex stumbled back and tripped over a tree root. He fell over backwards and dropped his sword as he did so.

"Ow; I guess that I need to practise my sword skills," he said, as he looked up at the ape. The ape grinned and kicked the sword away from Alex before he could reach for it.

"Now you di-" the ape began, before it suddenly yelled in pain.

Alex stared blankly at it for a second, before he looked over at the dragon, and saw smoke rising from its mouth. He looked back at the ape, and saw that it was on fire. He realised that the dragon had just saved him. Not pausing to think, he grabbed his sword and stabbed the ape through the heart killing it. Making sure it didn't fall on him; he pushed it with his foot to make it fall backwards.

"What a mess," he said as he examined his now blood-stained sword. He turned and walked over to the dragon, who was now staring up at him with a suspicious expression on its face. "Are you ok?" Alex asked it.

"Yes I'm fine, I could have taken them by myself though," Fiore replied glaring at him.

"Right, so then you obviously didn't yell for help, did you?" he replied sarcastically, kneeling down so that she was looking at him from her level. When she didn't reply, he moved towards her leg. When he touched it, she growled, and bared her teeth at him. "Wow, calm down, I'm only going to help free your leg," he said in a slightly scared tone.

"I don't need your help to free myself," she said indignantly. She tried to free her leg to prove her point, but was unable to on her own. She tried to free herself many times, before she gave up and looked at Alex who was now sitting looking at her smugly. "Ok fine, you can free my leg, but that's it," she said, sounding defeated.

Alex stood up, walked over to her back leg. He gently got hold of it. As his hands brushed over her scales, he thought he saw her shiver slightly. "What's wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"Nothing, get on with it," she replied, sounding slightly embarrassed. Had she not had red scales, Alex would have seen her blushing. He slowly lifted her leg up and moved it out of the tree root. He then let go of her leg, and she shook it slightly, as if getting some mud off it. Alex turned to walk back down the river. When he had taken a few steps, he heard the dragon speak. "Where are you going?" she asked him. Alex turned back to look at her.

"Honestly, I have no idea," he replied, smiling slightly. The dragon thought for a moment. She wanted to ask if she could go with him, but she didn't trust Alex at all. And yet she felt as though she wanted to be with him, which was odd seeing as how they had only just met.

"Do you...think that I could...come with you?" she finally said, sounding unsure.

Alex was surprised by this. "Wow, that was a quick mood change, a few seconds ago you didn't trust me, now you want to come with me...me, a person who has no idea where he wants to go," he said, sounding slightly shocked.

"Don't get me wrong, I still don't trust you; for all I know you could be an ape spy," she said coldly, glaring at him.

Alex looked at one of the bodies of the apes. "Do I really look like them?" he said looking back at her, before remembering that he was a human, an evolved form of an ape. "On second thoughts, don't answer that," he continued.

"Well, from the state you're in, you do look quite similar to them," the dragon said coolly. It was then that Alex realised that he had been hit a few times by the apes, and was now bleeding slightly in places.

"Very funny, I find that rather insulting," he muttered. When she didn't reply, he decided it would be best to let her come with him. "Alright then, you can come with me, on the condition that you don't eat me," he said jokingly.

She actually smiled at this, and said "Trust me; there's no way I'd ever eat you."

"Good, then let's go," Alex said, smiling slightly, before turning to walk off further down the river, followed by the dragon. "By the way, I didn't catch your name back there," he continued as they walked along.

"I guess you deserve to know that at least; my name's Fiore," she replied.

"Hmm, that means 'flower' in a language where I come from," Alex said, looking at Fiore, who had a puzzled look on her face, "and that's a pretty actuate description too," he continued without thinking. He realised his mistake too late. "Wait, did I say that out loud?" he said suddenly.

"Yes, you did, and thanks for the compliment," Fiore replied, smiling as Alex blushed.

"A-anyway...my name's Alexander, if you didn't hear, but call me Alex," he said, trying to move the conversation away.

"Nice to meet you, Alex," Fiore said.

They continued walking for a long time, during which Fiore kept looking around nervously. Soon it was night time, and they both arrived in a small open part of the forest. Alex was tired out from all the walking, so he decided that they should rest for the night. Fiore didn't argue at this, so Alex walked over to a fallen log. He wasn't sure what other creatures could exist in this world, so he hit the log a few times with his sword, until he was satisfied that there was nothing inhabiting it. He then lay down and rested his head on the log. Fiore had been watching him do this with an interested expression on her face.

"Where do you come from?" she asked suddenly. Alex looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said, watching her walk over to him. She lay down next to him, whilst facing his left side.

"I highly doubt that, I mean I haven't ever seen anything like you in all my life of wondering around," she said.

"That's probably because my kind shouldn't exist in this world," Alex replied.

"What do you mean?"

Alex sighed, before saying, "I don't come from this world, I actually come from a different world known as Earth."

"Really, what's it like?" Fiore asked eagerly. Alex looked up at the sky, wondering how much he should tell her. He decided to just be honest with her.

"Ok, where I come from, there are many thousands of my kind, all doted across the world," he said.

"Wow, are there any other races that exist in your world?" she asked, looking very interested.

"No, you see the human race is the most successful race in my world, but got there by wiping out many species of animals to do it," Alex replied, glaring at the sky. He never did like what the human race had done, as he always saw it as completely unnecessary.

"That seems hard to imagine, I mean my race has never done anything like that, in fact everyone in this world is equal," Fiore said, sounding slightly shocked, but still interested.

"Well, in my world, there is some equality, but that's only with other humans, and even then it's only very slightly," Alex continued, still glaring up at the stars.

"This world of yours sounds very different to this one," Fiore said, looking more and more interested.

"Tell me about it, and that's not even the beginning of the differences," Alex said. He then spent the next few minutes telling Fiore about the state his own world was in. When he was finished, she stared at him as if she couldn't believe what he had said.

"That's...un believable," she finally said.

"Yea, I guess it is hard to imagine," Alex replied.

"But what about you? What about your life?" Fiore asked.

Alex kept staring at the sky, deep in thought. "I'd rather not tell you at the moment, I'm too tired," he said, yawning to prove his point.

"Fine, but I will ask you again," she said, laying her head down on the ground. After a few minutes she was asleep. Alex however was still awake.

"_This world is certainly different from my own, and if dragons exist in this world, I can tell that my time here will be very interesting indeed," _he thought, whilst smiling to himself. A few moments later, he was also asleep.

**And that's all for that chapter. I hope none of you are offended by my opinion of humans in this story, it's all for the purpose of the plot. Anyway as normal please read and review. So until next time, bye...**


	3. Meeting the 'Terror of the Skies'

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. In this chapter, Alex and Fiore encounter Cynder. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 2: Meeting the 'Terror of the Skies'**

Fiore woke up early the next morning. She noticed Alex lying with his head on the log, and she forgot for a moment who he was, before she remembered the events of yesterday. She stood up and looked around. She saw that the clearing they were in had a river running through it. She felt thirsty so she walked over to the river, and drank some of the water out of it. When she was finished, she decided to go off and find some food. As she walked off into the forest, she looked back to where Alex was still lying. There was something about him that felt odd. She dismissed this as him just being different to the apes she had encountered, and continued on into the forest.

Ten minutes later, Alex awoke. He yawned, stretched and looked around. The first thing he noticed was that Fiore wasn't where she had been sleeping. Alex guessed that she had gone to look for something to eat. He sighed and stood up. When he did however, he felt a sudden rush of pain to his head. But when he grabbed his head with his hand, the pain was gone. _"Ok that was just weird," _he thought, looking around.

After a few minutes, Fiore returned with a deer in her mouth.

"Blimey, how long did it take you to catch that?" Alex said, eyeing the deer.

"Not long; first I had to find one, the rest after that was both easy and simple," Fiore said proudly as she placed the deer down in front of Alex. Alex wasn't really a fan of raw meat, so he didn't like the thought of having to eat a bloodstained deer. Fiore had already dug into the deer, whilst Alex simply sat down and watched her eat. Fiore soon realised that Alex wasn't eating the deer. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking up from the bloodstained deer.

"Oh nothing, I'm just not hungry," Alex said.

"Rubbish, when was the last time you ate anything?" she said glaring at him. Alex thought for a moment. The last time he had eaten anything was back on earth. Realising that he hadn't eaten anything for hours made his stomach grumble, which earned a giggle from Fiore.

"Ok. Fine. I am hungry, it's just that I don't really like having to eat raw meat," he said finally.

"Well, its either this or you starve, there are no other food sources for miles, and even then it won't be anything other than meat," Fiore said impatiently.

"I guess you're right," Alex said, defeated.

He leaned forward and tore off a section of the deer. He looked at it with a disgusted look on his face, before taking a bit out of it. Strangely the meat actually tasted good to him, even though he wasn't that keen on meat anyway.

"Well, it's different to the meat from my own world, the meat there isn't as nice as this," he said taking another bit out of it. Fiore smiled at him, happy that she had won their little battle of wills.

"Of course, it's better than the meat you eat in your world, because it's freshly killed, and the fear that the deer felt before it died is still in the meat, and it leaves a good taste to it," she said, grinning at him. Alex suddenly eyed her suspiciously.

"Not sure how that works, but whatever makes it taste better is fine with me," he said, in between eating.

"Of course, the fact that you like it is odd; I mean apes don't eat meat raw, they tend to try and cook it first, at least when they're feeding themselves and not their prisoners," Fiore said, looking at Alex with interest.

"Well, I'm not exactly an ape am I, so I can't be completely the same can I?" Alex replied, finishing the chunk of meat, and starting on another.

"Yea, that'll be it...and save some meat for me," Fiore said, quickly resuming her meal. Alex thought for a moment.

"You said something about apes feeding prisoners, how do you know something like that... if you don't mind me asking?" he said, adding the last part on. Fiore looked uncomfortable for a second.

"You remember the apes that you killed rather impressively?" she said slowly, as if unsure what to say.

"Yea, I do, and thanks for distracting that last one, you saved me then," Alex replied, smiling at her, and causing her to blush.

"It was nothing, you saved me, so I thought that I'd help you out," she said, smiling back at him, before she continued, "but those apes were actually sent to capture...or rather, recapture me."

"Why would they want to do that?" Alex asked, putting down the chunk of meat he was holding.

"I guess I'll have to explain everything that's going on here," she said, sighing before she continued, "well, first thing I should tell you is about a prophecy of a purple dragon, a very special dragon born only once every ten generations, which would have the power to change the world, and either save it from evil, or destroy it."

"Interesting, please continue," Alex said, leaning forward out of pure interest.

"Well, that dragon was supposed to be born in the year of the dragon, along with a lot of other dragons, but sadly, the dark master also knew of this prophecy, and that it would be born at that time too," Fiore said.

"Who's this dark master?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, the guardians never actually bothered to tell me about him," Fiore replied.

"Wait; rewind a sec, who are these guardians?"

"The guardians were four dragons who guarded the secrets of each of the four main elements, these were fire, ice, electricity and earth," Fiore said.

"I see, please continue," Alex said, leaning back slightly.

"When the eggs were going to hatch, the dark master sent an army of apes to attack the temple where the eggs were being kept; the fire guardian, Ignitus rescued the egg of the purple dragon, while the other three guardians tried to protect the other eggs," Fiore said, a tear starting to form in her eye. "I was only three when it happened."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Alex said quickly.

Fiore shook her head, saying, "No, its fine, but whilst the guardians and the army where occupied with each other, I took the time to rescue one of the other eggs, a red one."

"Why did you do that?" Alex asked.

"Because that egg contained my brother," Fiore replied.

"Oh, I see," Alex said softly.

"I left the temple and managed to find a place to hide both myself and the egg from the dark army," Fiore continued, after eating part of the meat she had left half eaten.

"Interesting, you certainly are impressive if you can do that at a young age," Alex said, smiling at her.

"Thanks, but all of that was twelve years ago," she replied darkly.

"So where's your brother now?" Alex asked. At this, Fiore looked really upset.

"I don't know, you see a few weeks ago, me and him got captured by the dark armies, and were held prisoner in different places. I was taken to a nearby prison, whilst my brother was taken to another place completely," she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I see, so you then at some point escaped from there, and then they caught up to you," Alex said calmly. Fiore nodded, before she burst into tears.

"It was...horrible...they were...torturing me," Fiore said between sobs.

Alex didn't know what to do, but he never liked to see someone upset, so he simply moved next to her and put his arm round her. She was surprised by what he had done, and looked up at him with tear stained eyes.

"It's ok, you're free from them now," Alex said soothingly, trying to calm her down.

"It's not ok; my brother's still captured," Fiore sobbed.

"Then we'll find away to save him," Alex said, staring into Fiore's eyes.

"You'd...you'd do that for me?" Fiore asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes anything for yo-...I mean, of course I would, I mean no one deserves to suffer like that," Alex said, quickly changing what he was about to say. Fiore had heard what he was going to say. She smiled and rested her head on his chest.

"Thank you, Alex," she said, drying her tears and smiling up at him. Something about the situation caused Alex to blush. He couldn't quite place it, and so thought it best to get going.

"I think we should get going; do you have any idea where your brother was kept?" he asked, standing up.

"None, but I while I was captured I heard some of the apes talking about a purple dragon being sighted in the nearby swamp," Fiore said, standing up as well.

"Purple dragon, you mean the one from the prophecy?" Alex said.

"Yes, that's why I broke out, so that I could try and get its help to save my brother," Fiore said.

"I see, how long ago did they say this?" Alex asked.

"Yesterday," Fiore said, causing Alex's eyes to widen.

"You mean that you escaped from a prison, ran all the way here and were almost captured again, in the space of one day!" he exclaimed.

"Yea that's about right," Fiore said, smiling at his surprised expression.

"Blimey, you don't hang about do you?" Alex said, returning to his normal, calm self.

"Nope, but since I've no idea where to start looking for this dragon, I think we should go search out the dragon temple," Fiore said.

"Ok then, I'll follow your lead," Alex said.

Fiore nodded, and turned to walk into the forest again, followed by Alex, as they began the journey towards the temple, not knowing what state it was in, or that the same purple dragon was also heading there at that moment.

Alex and Fiore had been walking through the forest for a couple of hours. They hadn't spoken much as they had been walking, but they had each given the other glances when they thought the other wasn't looking. Fiore was grateful that Alex would help her rescue her brother.

"_He is a stranger to this world, and yet he readily offers to help me; does he do that out of sympathy, or is it something else...?" _she thought as they walked along.

Alex on the other hand was watching Fiore, whilst taking in everything about her. From what he could see, she was a confident individual, who would let nothing stop her from achieving her goals. Alex found this and the fact that she was a dragon intriguing.

"_I wonder what the other dragons are like?" _he idly thought as they walked along. They soon reached the swamp. "Blimey, for a swamp, it has a lot of mushroom trees," Alex said, staring up at the large trees.

"Yea, but we should sight-see later; right now we have to find the purple dragon," Fiore said, taking a few steps through the swamp.

"Great, now we get to walk through miles of mud, just great," Alex said sarcastically, before following her. Walking through the swamp was actually a challenge, because they both had to tread carefully, or else they'd sink into the mud. "This is either a good thing because I'm being kept awake, or a nuisance," Alex said, pulling himself out of the mud for the fifth time.

"Oh come on, you just have to learn to watch your step," Fiore said smugly walking past him. Her smugness was short lived however, because barely a second after she had said those words, she suddenly began to sink into the mud. "Oh no, Alex help me," she said, a slight sense of urgency in her voice.

"Oh come on, you can pull yourself out can't you," Alex said, walking over to her.

"No I can't, now GET ME OUT OF HERE!" she yelled at him.

"Alright alright, calm down," Alex said, grinning at her. He put his hands under her underbelly. "Now if you'll let me, I'm going to pull you out by lifting up your underbelly, if you're ok with that?" he said, looking at her with a serious expression on his face. Fiore nodded, and Alex lifted her up and out of the mud.

"Thanks," she said, sounding relieved.

"No problem, but next time take your own advice and watch your step," he replied, grinning at her.

"Yea, that would probably have been a good idea," she said, suddenly sounding worried as she looked up at the sky. Alex was about to ask her why, when he heard the flapping of wings. He looked up and saw a large black dragon flying towards them. "Oh no," Fiore said, and Alex realised that this dragon wasn't going to be very friendly with them. Fiore suddenly tried to run away, followed shortly by Alex.

"Fiore, don't leave me to fend off the huge, black, evil-looking dragon," he yelled after her.

Unfortunately, the large dragon landed in front of Fiore. Fiore shrieked and hurriedly scrabbled to get away from the black dragon. She only just managed to escape the dragon's jaws as they attempted to grab her tail. As the black dragon tried to grab Fiore again, Alex suddenly drew his sword and stepped between them, brandishing the sword in an effort to deter the large dragon.

"Don't even think about doing that to Fiore," he yelled challengingly at the dragon. The large dragon smiled, causing Alex to recoil slightly.

"You're brave to stand against me; either that, or you're just stupid," it said, it's voice sounding female, yet slightly evil.

Alex eyed the dragon up and down. From what he could see, and from what he had heard, this large dragon was a female. As well as that, she also had six silver horns, a magenta-coloured underbelly and wings which were the same colour, and that also had some holes in them. She also had green eyes, which Alex could see held a hidden beauty in them, but it was overshadowed by the dragoness's evil appearance.

"I guess we'll soon find out which, won't we?" Alex said, trying to sound confident. He suddenly felt a vibrating next to his legs. He looked behind himself to see Fiore trembling behind his legs.

"This can be done easily if you like; just give me Fiore, and I might just spare you," the dragon said, glaring at Fiore, who shrank back behind Alex's legs.

"Al-Alex, please don't let her take me again," Fiore almost sobbed, clinging to his legs. Normally Alex would have just stood aside and let Fiore be taken, but seeing her in such a terrified state made him want to defend her. He sighed and turned back to look at the large dragon.

"I'm sure that I'll regret this, but if you want her, then you'll have to fight me first," Alex said, trying to remain focused and calm in the presence of the large dragoness.

"A shame; I guess that it'll do as a work out before I confront the purple dragon," she said coldly.

"All the more reason for me to put up a thorough fight," Alex replied, his scared voice betraying his confident expression.

He immediately ran at the dragon and brandished his sword at her. Unsurprisingly, the dragon easily avoided this attack, and hit him with her paw. This knocked him over, momentarily stunning him. But as the large dragon moved towards Fiore, Alex suddenly got up and ran at her, this time slashing at her side and cutting into her scaly flesh. The large dragoness gave a short roar of pain and swiped at Alex with her tail. She managed to trip him up, and this time she jumped on him, effectively pinning him to the ground.

"Err, Fiore, some help would be much appreciated," Alex yelled at her, trying to get her to react.

When she didn't, Alex grabbed his sword with his free hand and tried to stab the dragon through her underbelly with it. The dragoness saw this coming and used her free paw to pin his sword arm to the ground.

"Oh god, this is IMPOSSIBLE," Alex yelled.

"You should have fled and left Fiore, but you chose the painful approach, and have earned death," the large dragoness gloated.

"In my experience, never gloat before you kill your prey, it always ends badly," Alex replied, attempting to sound smug, but failing.

At that moment, Fiore realised that Alex was about to die. Although her instincts said to run, she wasn't about to let the one person that had shown her kindness be killed by the 'terror of the skies'. She could feel the power of her fire element coursing through her body as she ran towards the pair. She leaped into the air, yelling, "EAT THIS CYNDER." Before either Cynder or Alex could react, Fiore had comet dashed into the side of her, with enough force as to send her off Alex. Gingerly, Alex stood up and looked over to see Cynder and Fiore squaring off against each other.

"It's about time you actually fought back, you sorry excuse of a dragon," Cynder spat angrily at Fiore.

Fiore however no longer looked afraid. She leapt at Cynder and tried to burn her with her fire elemental attacks. Cynder managed to shrug most of these off, and eventually managed to send Fiore flying into at tree. Fiore hit the tree, landed on the ground and yelped in pain. Cynder wasted no time in ferociously attacking her, not even giving her a chance to recover, as she hit her with her tail. Eventually Fiore had taken so much punishment that she couldn't even stand.

"Now you die," Cynder said triumphantly.

"No," Alex said quietly, as Fiore tried in vain to stand up. She looked helplessly over at Alex, who instantly felt angry and scared for Fiore at the same time. These conflicting emotions sparked something inside of Alex.

What happened next surprised both Fiore and Alex. Alex's eyes suddenly went from the normal colour, to glowing Red and Blue. It was frightening to look at. He suddenly ran at Cynder, drawing his sword as he did so. Cynder hadn't noticed the threat to her rear, as she began to charge up an elemental attack. Alex somehow leaped two feet into the air and landed on Cynder's back, stabbing the sword into her back as he landed. Although it didn't go completely through, it was enough. Cynder reared up onto her back legs and let out a deafening scream, as Alex tumbled off her back, pulling the sword out as he did so.

In the background, Fiore heard somebody yell, "Breathe, Sparks old boy, go to your happy place." She ignored this because Cynder had recovered from Alex's attack and was about to attack him, when she saw his eyes. The sight of Alex's eyes like they were told Cynder that it wasn't worth killing him yet. Snarling, Cynder jumped into the air and flew away, leaving both of them stunned.

"Tell me she did not just run away," Alex said in disbelief, his eyes still glowing. Fiore tried to stand up, but felt a rush of pain, which caused her to yelp, and collapse on to the ground. "FIORE," Alex exclaimed, running over to her, "are you ok?" he asked, as his eyes returned to normal.

"I-I'm fine, Alex," she lied.

Alex could see that she had many cuts and bruises, some cuts were deeper than others. "I might not know much about medical processes, but I think that none of these are too serious," Alex said, brushing his hand against one of them.

"I told you, I'm fine," Fiore repeated. She tried for a third time to stand up, but her legs gave way and she collapsed.

"Doesn't look like you'll be walking for a while; here let me carry you," Alex said. Without waiting for her to reply, Alex carefully lifted Fiore off the ground, and held her so that she could look at him.

"Thanks," she said simply. Alex carried her as he walked through the swamp.

"It might be an idea to head to the temple you mentioned was around here," Alex said.

"I didn't say it was around here, but you're right, that would be a good idea," Fiore replied, resting her head on Alex's arm.

Alex smiled at this, as he walked down a pathway, "Err, can you tell me where about the temple is?" Alex asked.

"Oh it isn't too far; if I recall, you'll soon be able to see it if you keep walking," Fiore replied, not bothering to raise her head.

Alex smiled, and replied by saying, "You're enjoying this aren't you."

"No, I'm just saving my energy," Fiore said smugly.

Alex continued onwards through the swamp, not knowing that something was happening to him, something strange.

**Ohh, plot twist. What could that mean, and why did Alex's eyes change colour. Anyway I hope that you all like the story so far. So please Read and review. Until next time, bye.**


	4. Temple, purple dragon and a fight

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. In this chapter, Alex and Fiore enter the temple, also a new character appears. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 3: Temple, purple dragon and a fight.**

"So is this the place," Alex said, as he looked up at a wooden door way. He had been carrying Fiore for a few minutes, but his arms were already beginning to tire. He looked down at Fiore, and saw her looking up at him. She smiled and looked over at the door.

"Yea, this is the place," she replied, looking back at him.

"Well, I'll have to put you down if I want to open the door," Alex said, walking towards it. Surprisingly the door opened on its own. Alex shrugged and continued on through the door. He arrived in a corridor, and saw that at the opposite end there was some sort of crystal. Fiore had seen it too.

"That crystal should be enough to heal me," she said.

Alex wasn't sure how it could, but never the less walked up to it. When he was close enough, Fiore stretched out a paw and touched the crystal. It instantly began to glow and Alex watched with wide eyes as Fiore's wounds closed up and healed themselves. When the crystal stopped glowing, Fiore leaped out of Alex's arms and landed on the ground.

"That's better," she said, sounding relieved.

"What just happened, what did that crystal just do?" Alex asked, slightly awed by what he had just seen happen.

Fiore smiled, before she replied with, "Dragons can use crystals like that to heal ourselves, that's all you need to know."

"Nice; someone's going to have to explain everything to me," Alex said, still sounding awed.

"Anyway, we should get going, follow me," Fiore said, running off down the corridor.

Alex soon followed her through corridor after corridor, until she stopped at a door similar to the one they had previously gone through. "Ok, now what?" Alex asked, placing his hand on the door.

"I'm not sure, normally the door opens, but since it hasn't there has to be a reason," Fiore wondered.

Alex sighed and looked around the room. He spotted two dragon head statues near circular stones. "Maybe it has something to do with those statues there," Alex said.

"It could do, these are meant to be on those stones, perhaps if you were to push them back into place the door might open," Fiore said.

"Great, more manual labour for me," Alex said sarcastically as he walked over to one of the statues. He tried pushing it, and found it moved quite easily. When he had pushed the statue onto the stone, it glowed for a moment, before returning to its dull state. "That's one, now for the next," Alex said, walking over to the other one. When he had pushed that one in place, it glowed again, and this time the door swung open for them.

Alex looked over at Fiore, who had sat down at this point, and was watching him with a look of interest on her face. When she saw Alex staring at her, she stood up and walked through the open doorway, followed shortly by Alex. They walked through yet another corridor, before emerging in a large room. Alex took a few steps forward, suddenly feeling like he was being watched. As he walked towards the corridor on his and Fiore's right, his eyes kept darting around the room.

"Alex, what's wrong?" Fiore said, sounding slightly worried.

"I don't know, I just have a feeling that we are about to get attacked," Alex replied, turning round to look at Fiore, who was now walking towards him. However before she had only taken a few steps, a group of small apes suddenly jumped down from the ceiling, surrounding Fiore who yelped when they landed.

"About time someone showed up; we were getting bored," one of the apes said.

"I think you'll find both of us to be more than you can take," Alex replied confidently, drawing his sword. Immediately he ran at the apes and slashed a few times at them, managing to kill a few before they had time to react to this move. When he did this, Fiore tapped into her fire element and used it to burn the ones that had surrounded her. This sheer force of Alex's sword skills and Fiore's fire meant that the apes were now panicking and running around the room trying to get away from them.

Just as Alex was about to kill another one, he suddenly saw something purple appearing from a nearby hallway, which when he looked more closely, he realised was a small purple dragon. Just as soon as he had seen this, did he see a yellow light appearing next to it, which he then realised, was a dragonfly.

"Blimey, we go looking for the purple dragon, and then we find he's inside the temple; what luck, wouldn't you say, Fiore?" Alex said, calling over to Fiore, who was busy handling the last of the apes.

Unfortunately for Alex, the purple dragon didn't know that he was a friend, and so immediately charged at him. He had barely enough time to react before it had hit him and knocked him to the ground.

"Oww, calm down, I'm on your side," Alex exclaimed as the purple dragon moved to continue his assault.

"Last I checked, apes weren't on my side," the purple dragon replied. The dragon was about to attack Alex with fire, but was stopped when Fiore came out of nowhere and dived into the dragon.

"Yikes, a red dragon out of nowhere," the dragonfly said, sounding amused. Alex got up and watched as Fiore and the purple dragon began fighting each other. As he did this the dragonfly flew over to him. "By the way, is that dragon a friend of yours?" it asked.

"Well, I guess you could say that; do you think we can break up the fight, we're not enemies," Alex replied.

"Yea, that might be a good idea, seeing as how hot headed my brother over there is," the dragonfly said, motioning to the purple dragon that had now broken out of fighting with Fiore, and was now glaring at her in a fighting stance.

"Your brother? I can't imagine how that works," Alex said, before he walked over to Fiore, whilst the dragonfly flew over to the purple dragon. "If you two could stop trying to kill each other for a minute, I'd like to point out that we aren't with the apes," he continued, looking at the purple dragon, who seemed to have calmed down slightly.

"You're not?" the dragon replied, sounding surprised.

"Of course not; haven't you notice all the corpses of apes in this room?" Fiore said, sounding annoyed.

"Well, I thought that was because you'd killed them by yourself," the purple dragon said to her defensively.

"Right, now that we've stopped trying to kill each other, do you two want to explain what you're doing here?" the dragonfly said.

Alex and Fiore looked at each other, before Alex said, "I think it would be better if we discussed this somewhere that had less, dead things in it."

"In that case, follow me, I have to push these statues into place in order to open the door for Ignitus," the dragon said.

"Yea, we had to do that as well...wait is there another dragon here?" Alex asked, suddenly slightly nervous.

"Ignitus is alive?" Fiore suddenly yelled with excitement.

"Yea, you know him?" the dragon asked, staring at Fiore with an interested expression.

"Yes I do; in fact he taught me some things about fire, before the night of the raid on this temple," Fiore said, her tone suddenly becoming sad.

"Oh, right, sorry," the dragon said, walking towards a statue, and using his head to push it in place.

"By the way, what's your name," Alex asked the dragon, whilst he leant on the wall, watching the dragon push the other statue in place.

"My name's Spyro and the annoying pest over there is Sparx, my brother," 'Spyro' said, motioning at the dragonfly.

"Hey, I'm not a pest," he said angrily.

"But no doubt you're annoying," Fiore replied, receiving a glare from Sparx.

"Anyway, I think we should get going. I'd like to meet this Ignitus, perhaps he can tell me why I'm here," Alex said, walking towards the corridor.

The rest of them soon followed him, and before long, they had all arrived at the top of a ledge that overlooked a large room. Standing in the room was a large red dragon. Spyro immediately flew down to join him. Alex and Fiore were about to follow him, when Alex suddenly heard movement and stopped Fiore. Seconds later, a group of apes, lead by a much larger Ape appeared in the room.

"I wonder how good they are at fighting," Alex whispered to Fiore, stopping her from leaping down at the apes. The large dragon stepped in front of Spyro as soon as the apes had appeared. When he did this, the large ape smiled.

"Well Ignitus, we nabbed your guardian buddies, but you escaped our grasp...until now," it said, narrowing its eyes at the last part.

"So that's Ignitus," Alex whispered.

"Well yea, I would have thought that was obvious," Fiore said sarcastically.

Ignitus seemed unfazed by the apes. "Stand back Spyro..." he said, using his wings to push Spyro out of harm's way, before adding, "and let me show you what a dragon trained in the ancient ways can do." At once Ignitus began attacking the apes, first by sending a fire missile at them, and then by knocking them back into each other in a variety of different ways.

"Wow, the big guy's got some moves," Sparx said, sounding impressed.

At this point, the large ape ordered the rest of the group to encircle Ignitus. What they hadn't realised was that Ignitus was powering up his fury. When the apes were about to attack him, he unleashed his power, sending out a wave of fire, which killed all the apes in the room.

"Wow, that was impressive," Alex said in awe of what he had just seen. At this point, he decided it would be best to show himself. He then immediately leaped down from the ledge, and managed to land cleanly. Fiore glided down and landed beside him.

"Hello, Ignitus," she said coolly, causing him to look round. When he saw Fiore, his eyes widened.

"Fiore, you're alright, thank the ancestors!" he exclaimed. Spyro simply stood watching them both.

"Yea, I'm fine, thanks to him," Fiore replied, nodding at Alex as she walked towards Ignitus. Ignitus turned and looked at Alex for a moment.

"And who are you," he asked.

"Me, my name's Alex," Alex said, walking up to where Fiore was now standing.

"You look suspiciously like those apes," Ignitus replied, glaring at Alex suspiciously.

"That's probably because I'm an evolved version of them, but then again I'm not from this world," Alex said, moving to stand slightly behind Fiore.

"I see, well we can talk later, right now we need to root out any more apes that reside in this temple," he replied, walking towards a now open door. Spyro and Sparks soon followed. Alex and Fiore however remained standing where they were.

"That went a lot better than with Spyro," Alex said, smiling slightly.

"Yea, if by better you mean you didn't get flattened by a small dragon," Fiore replied jokingly.

"Hey, he had me by surprise, you wouldn't be able to stop a surprise attack from him," Alex said angrily.

"Sure, anyway lets go, we don't want to be left behind," Fiore said, smiling at him as she walked towards the door. For a moment, Alex's eyes were drawn to her swaying tail and the area that joined it to her body. He immediately looked up, blushing slightly, and walked after her.

When they caught up with Spyro and Ignitus, they found Spyro finishing off a group of apes with his fire element, in a huge room, that had a large statue of a dragon in the centre that almost touched the ceiling. When he had finished, Ignitus began walking towards the door at the opposite end of the room.

"Looks like you had fun," Alex said, standing next to the statue as he watched Spyro inspect what he had just done.

"Well, I guess it is sort of fun," he replied, before following Ignitus through the door.

Alex followed him through the doorway, and found himself back outside on a walkway which faced away from the temple, looking out towards the tree tops. He walked forwards slowly, taking in the stunning view from a top the ledge. Ignitus and Spyro however, weren't as impressed by the view.

"What happened here?" Spyro asked, looking around.

"This is what Cynder has done...put all the islands under her iron rule," Ignitus replied.

"I wanted to see where I came from… but I didn't know it was going to be like this" Spyro sighed.

"Yeah, no offense but this place is a bit of a dump" Sparx said.

"I second that," Alex said.

"This was once our home, Spyro...together we can make it our home once again…reclaim what's rightfully ours," Ignitus said, ignoring what Alex and Sparx had said.

Alex wasn't sure what to say, so he walked over to the edge of the ledge and sat on the side, watching them as they talked. After a few seconds, Fiore walked up to him and sat down next to him.

"It's good to be back home," she said softly.

"I guess," Alex said sadly, suddenly remembering about his life back on earth. Fiore heard the tone of his voice, and looked at him inquisitively.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh nothing, it's just hard to adjust to this new world, and I'm tired," he said, turning to look at her.

Fiore smiled at him and said, "Yea, fighting off hoards of apes and a large black dragon would take a lot out of a person."

"Well it certainly has taken more out of me than what I normally do," Alex replied, also smiling.

At this point, Spyro and Ignitus had walked back into the temple, so Fiore and Alex got up and walked after them. They then found both of them in the large room that had previously held the huge dragon statue. It looked as if Ignitus was teaching Spyro some things about combat, and his element, so Alex and Fiore decided to watch him. At the moment, it seemed as though Ignitus was getting Spyro to destroy a group of dummies with his fire element, and didn't seem to have much trouble. This seemed to annoy Fiore.

"How can he be able to use fire so effectively, when it took me ages to learn the most basic ways of using fire?" she said angrily.

"Well, he is the purple dragon; this sort of thing seems to come naturally to him," Alex said, smiling slightly as Spyro ran after the fleeing dummies.

"Yea but still, even at his age I could barely use the powers he can use," she replied just as angrily.

"Well, maybe if Ignitus lets you, you can show Spyro what you know, and beat him," Alex said, trying to sound as if he was on her side. Fiore grinned evilly at that thought, but immediately shook her head.

"No, I don't think that I should, besides it's like you say, he is the purple dragon, he is meant to be good at this," she said, her mood suddenly changing to a much calmer one.

After a long time, Ignitus finally was finished teaching Spyro how to effectively use fire. He had shown Spyro how to perform a fury, which Spyro easily accomplished. Fiore seemed amazed as she watched Spyro release a wall of fire at the dummies.

"That's amazing, not even I can do that," Fiore exclaimed, her eyes wide with awe.

"When you've seen one fury you've seen them all," Alex said, sounding a lot less impressed than Fiore did.

"Good work Spyro, that's all I can teach you, but before we stop, there something I need to discuss with Fiore," Ignitus said, walking towards her, whilst Spyro continued to fight against dummies that kept reappearing. When Ignitus reached her, he motioned for them to follow him through into the room with the green pool. When she did, he turned to look at her and said, "Now that we are alone, there is something that I need to know; how did you meet Alex?"

"I met him when he saved me from a group of apes that were attacking me," Fiore said simply.

"Right, before that, did you perhaps see a bright, purple light appear and disappear near where you found him?" Ignitus asked. Fiore thought back to yesterday. She had seen a purple light, but it was gone so fast that she had thought it a trick of the light.

"Yes I did see a light, why do you ask?" she queried. Ignitus thought for a moment, before replying.

"Because there have been one or two other lights appearing and disappearing like that, some were seen near the mountains, others near the swamp," he said.

"So..."

"So, it's my belief that Alex isn't from this world, and that there are others who could be from his world as well," Ignitus continued.

"So why are you telling me; surely Alex would be better with this information?" Fiore asked. Again, Ignitus remained silent for a moment before he answered.

"Because there is something about Alex that causes me to think he might not like the idea of people he knew being in this world," Ignitus replied darkly, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Alex, who had by this time taken out his sword and was trying out a few attacks with it.

"So what do you think we should do?"

"It would be better if Alex were to find them one at a time, but for now I will check the pool of visions, perhaps it can tell me where you both need to go," Ignitus said, looking back at Fiore.

Fiore nodded and went back to watching Spyro train. She walked into the room to find that Spyro had given the training room floor to Alex, who was now using various methods of sword moves to destroy the dummies. Fiore sat down and began watching him. She was surprised at how well he used the sword, because even though he was unused to using swords like that, his movements were all fluid and he barely ever missed a hit on the dummies.

She lay down into a more comfortable position, and continued to watch him. Her eyes examined every part of his body as he swung his blade around through the air. She thought back to when he had fought Cynder, only a few hours ago. He had shown then that he wasn't just a random stranger, but someone worth watching, maybe even dying for. She let out a rather loud sigh, which made Alex look round at her. He looked into her eyes for a moment, then smiled at her and went back to fighting the dummies. Fiore immediately felt her cheeks redden as she blushed, though thankfully her scales covered it up pretty well. She looked away from Alex.

"_What just happened?" _she asked herself, unsure about why she suddenly felt embarrassed.

"Alright, that's it for now," Ignitus said, walking into the room suddenly, as the large statue reappeared from below the floor. Alex just managed to get onto the sides of the room before he could fall into the depths of the temple.

"You might want to warn me before you do that next time," he yelled at Ignitus, who simply smiled whilst Fiore giggled.

Spyro walked over to Ignitus, who led him and Sparx into the pool of visions room. Alex walked over to Fiore, who had stood up to look at him. "So how'd you like watching me train?" Alex said, making it plain he knew that she had been watching him for a while.

"I-It was...interesting," she replied, trying not to look into his eyes.

"Interesting hu...I never knew that I _interested _you like **that**," he said playfully, putting emphasis onto the last word.

"I didn't mean interesting like that!" Fiore growled angrily, even though she was actually blushing.

"It's alright to be _interested _in me, Fiore, after all you're quite beautiful yourself," Alex said teasingly. Fiore was now blushing so hard that it was actually visible despite her red scales.

"I...err...well...thanks," she spluttered, unsure as how to react. Alex was grinning now.

"Anyway, I think we should see what they're up to," he said, becoming more serious. Fiore stopped blushing, nodded and then followed him into the room. From what Alex could tell, Sparx was annoying Ignitus, whilst Ignitus was trying to tell Spyro something.

"...Then how do we get there?" Spyro queried.

"I'm glad you asked," Ignitus replied, whilst smiling.

"Why are you smiling? I don't like it," Sparx said, sounding worried.

"My guess, it involves flying," Alex said walking up to them.

"Yes, and you're going to be the one flying, Spyro," Ignitus said.

"So you mean to say that I can...fly?" Spyro asked.

"Yea, I think he just told you that," Alex said sarcastically.

It was at this point that Sparx and Spyro both made it plain and obvious that they didn't think that Spyro could fly. They were both proven wrong when Ignitus awakened the ability in Spyro, by muttering something about forgetting himself.

"I'm not sure how forgetting yourself allows you fly, but I'd rather not get a lecture on the way dragons work," Alex said as he watched Spyro and Sparx fly off to Dante's Freezer.

"Now I think it's time you and Fiore went on a journey," Ignitus said suddenly.

"Nice, always on the move, seems that's going to be my lot in life," Alex moaned, keeping his sarcastic tone.

"So where and what do we need to go do?" Fiore asked.

"The pool of visions has shown me a vision of both of you in the forest over there," Ignitus said, gesturing towards the far off mountains.

"Any reason why we are there?" Alex asked.

"There wasn't anything in the vision that said what you were doing there, so perhaps more will come in time; until then just explore the forest and see what you can find," Ignitus said, in a way that suggested he was hiding something.

Fiore picked up and this, so when Alex had walked off to find his sword, she said to Ignitus, "I can tell you're lying to us, and that there was more in that vision than what you're telling us."

"I won't tell you anything more; just look after yourself," he replied.

"I don't need to, it's Alex I'll be watching out for," Fiore joked as she walked off to join Alex.

After a few minutes, she and Alex were both walking out of the temple and back into the swamp. "Once again we traverse the swamp; I had thought that I'd seen enough of it for today," Alex grumbled.

"Oh don't worry, as soon as we're out of it, we can make camp and go to sleep," Fiore said.

"_I hope so,"_Alex thought as they walked through the swamp. Happily this time, Cynder wasn't around to attack them, so by nightfall they were out of the swamp and were quite far into the forest.

"Well, this is where we stop for the night," Alex said, standing next to a log. As Fiore walked over to him however, he suddenly sensed something approaching them. He looked around, but couldn't see anything. Fiore could tell that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Alex silenced her and moved towards a bush, drawing his sword as he did.

"Alright, I know you're there," Alex barked at the bush.

Instantly, a figure in black appeared out from behind the bush and tried to tackle Alex. Somehow Alex anticipated the attack and slashed his sword in defence. Although the figure managed to dodge, Alex succeeded in cutting his arm with his sword. The figure yelled in pain and stepped back. Alex took this time to examine the opponent. From what he could see, he was dressed completely in black, with a hood like an assassin, a mask over the bottom half of his face, a cloak and he wore some thick boots. He also noticed that he had numerous knives attached to belts, which he wore around his body, along with two short swords on his chest.

"Nice get out; been to a fancy dress party or something?" Alex said mockingly, surprising himself by how confident he sounded.

"No, I'm an assassin," the figure said. His voice sounded oddly familiar to Alex, but he couldn't place where he had heard it before.

"Really, then why are you here?" Alex asked, glaring at the figure.

The figure didn't answer, but lunged at Alex with such speed that Alex couldn't even move anything to defend himself, until his opponent had tackled him and draw an hidden blade (like the ones on Assassin's Creed, more like Ezio's though), which he tried to stab into Alex's neck. Alex managed to grab the hand that had the hidden blade out, and managed to hold it back.

"Now you die," the figure said coldly.

"Err, no," Alex said smugly.

The figure looked confused at first, but then Fiore charged into him with her comet dash power, which knocked him off Alex and into a tree. Alex immediately got up and ran at the figure, who had already recovered and had drawn both short swords. Alex brought his sword down at the figure, who blocked with both swords. Before the figure had a chance to react, Alex split the sword in two and used his now free, second sword to impale the figure's right arm to a tree. The figure yelled in pain, and tried to free his arm, but was stopped when Alex grabbed his own short sword and used it to impale his other arm to the tree.

"I don't know why, but this feels good to do," Alex said, grinning, as he watched the blood drip down from the wounds. Snarling, the figure tried to kick Alex, but Alex simply caught his foot.

"Now, if it's all the same with you, Alex, I think we should find out who this person is," Fiore said walking up to stand next to Alex. Alex nodded, and pushed back the figure's hood and took the mask off. He revealed the face of someone he recognised from his past life on earth.

"Hello, Nathaniel, you really need to learn not to fight me," Alex said, glaring at him.

"Man, are you ever surprised by me?" Nathaniel replied, sounding annoyed.

"Nope," Alex said simply, before punching him in the face.

**Wow, that has to be the longest chapter that I've ever written. I have to say that I'm glad people want me to continued with my story, it's nice to be appreciated.:) The figure who attacked them, Nathaniel, will be explained more in the next chapter. Anyway please tell me what you think by reviewing the story, and until next time, bye!**


	5. Introductions, Emotions and a Dreamscape

**Hi everyone, I'm back after five days with the next chapter. A lot happens in this chapter, but not much plot advancement happens. With that said on with the story...**

**Chapter 4: Introductions, Emotions and a Dreamscape**

"Oww, what was that for?" Nathaniel said angrily. Alex had punched him squarely in the face, and had now turned away from him.

"I think trying to kill me is a good enough reason," Alex spat angrily.

"Oh come on, that was just a little fun," Nathaniel replied, trying to lighten the mood.

"Be glad that you and I are still friends, otherwise I would have killed you now," Alex said coldly.

"Great, now can you free me, having two swords in your arms is really painful," Nat joked (I'm going to call him Nat from now on, because I can't be bothered to type Nathaniel out any more).

"Hmm, let me think about that for a few minutes," Alex said sarcastically, pretending to think hard.

"I say we leave him for the next creature that comes along," Fiore said, standing next to Alex. Nat looked surprised at Fiore.

"Holy crap, the mutant red dog can talk," he said in his joking voice. This didn't go down well with Fiore.

"'_Mutant red dog'_, how dare you, I am a dragon, not a house pet," she growled.

"Well you look like a mutant dog to me," Nat replied, showing that he had no sense of self preservation. Fiore began quivering with rage, and would have leapt at Nat if Alex hadn't held her down.

"Easy, don't let him bait you, we don't want to murder him...just yet," he said softly, before glaring at Nat; "anyway, I guess that I might as well free you," he continued, pulling out the swords from where they had impaled his arms. Nat quickly examined the areas where the swords had pierced.

"Great, now I know what Jesus felt like," Nat said sarcastically.

"Jesus?" Fiore questioned.

"Someone of historical importance in our world, I'll explain later," Alex answered, standing back next to her.

"Right, well I still can't see why we should free him, after all he did just insult me," Fiore said, baring her teeth at Nat as she spoke.

"Whow, calm down, I only meant it as a joke," Nat said quickly, backing up against the tree, finally realising the danger he was in.

"Look, he's from my own world, so that means that we need to stick together in order to find out what happened to us," Alex said calmly, before adding, "after that, you can do what you want with him."

"Gee thanks, that really makes me feel better," Nat replied sarcastically.

"Since you're going to be with us, how about starting by telling us what you've been up to since we got sent to this world," Alex said, ignoring Nat's last comment.

"Well, since I arrived too, I've found all these awesome looking weapons and clothing, so I put them all on, and for the majority of yesterday and today, I've been running around killing off random apes that happened to be in my way," Nat replied without pausing for breath.

"Wow, I didn't think anyone could talk for that long in a single breath," Fiore muttered, unimpressed.

"Sounds like you're being as blood thirsty as always," Alex remarked.

"When have I ever been blood thirsty?" Nat asked, glaring slightly.

"Well, in our old world, you constantly loved to describe people being impaled on spikes, stabbed in various ways, or else being devoured by the un-dead," Alex answered, smiling slightly.

"None of that was me being blood thirsty," Nat replied defensively.

"Yea well, it might as well have been," Alex shrugged. There was a long silence. "Well since it's dark, we should get some rest, and before I forget," Alex said finally, holding out the short sword to Nat, "here's your short sword back."

"Thank you," Nat said, taking hold of it, before doing some slashes with it, as if he was fighting people.

"You're really going to have to tell me why you see him as a friend," Fiore remarked, smiling slightly when Nat hit the tree with his hand, causing him to drop the sword onto his foot, and making him yell in pain.

"There are times when I wonder about that as well," Alex agreed, sitting down next to a nearby log.

Nat picked up his sword, which was by this point blood-stained at the tip, and walked over to lie down on the other side of the log. When he was about to however, Fiore immediately stepped between him and Alex and growled as he tried to move past her.

"Let me past," he demanded.

"No, I don't trust you, I'm not letting you near Alex where you could hurt him," Fiore growled defensively. Alex looked at Fiore, and couldn't help but smile slightly.

"_Wow, she seems to care about me, that and she might just want to have a reason to murder Nathaniel," _he thought as he watched Nat walk away towards a tree near them.

When Nat was a good enough distance away, Fiore turned round and moved to lie next to Alex, facing towards Nat so as to make sure he didn't try anything. Alex looked down at her. From the position he was in, he could see that she was watching Nat intently, as if waiting for an opportunity to pounce on him. What interested Alex was the way her tail was swishing from side to side, although it was hard not to be interested since her tail end was almost touching his head. What surprised Alex was the way his eyes followed the pattern that her tail moved in. To him it was almost hypnotic. He shook his head to stop himself from looking at her like he was.

"You know, you didn't have to do that," he said, causing Fiore to jump, and turn her head round to look at him.

"Sorry, I guess I'm just over reacting," Fiore said, making as if to get up and move. Alex however put a hand on her tail, which made her yelp slightly, catching the attention of Nat as well.

"But I'd rather have your beautiful body next to me, than him," Alex said without thinking, "I mean err...I'd much rather have you next to me than him," he quickly said, trying to mask his error, but blushing all the same.

Fiore smiled at him and, whilst looking up and down his body, said, "Thanks Alex, to be fair you have a nice body too," which caused him to blush even harder.

"Alex, please tell me that you aren't suddenly in love with a dragon are you, because that is pretty F***ed up," Nat said, characteristically saying eFF instead of what it was meant to be.

"Shut up Nathaniel, don't make me finish what I started," Alex said angrily, his calm and soft tone replaced by an angry one.

"Fine, but don't do anything like mate with her because that would scar me for life," Nat replied, lying on his back.

Fiore ignored Nat, and moved so she stood almost touching Alex's right side. She then lay down and rested her head on the top of his left arm. Alex then moved his left arm and put it over Fiore's body, holding her close to him. Alex wasn't sure why he did that. Fiore flinched at this bold move, but snuggled up closer to Alex, enjoying the warmth that radiated from his body. Alex smiled, and turned his head to look at Fiore. She turned her head slightly, so that they were both now looking into each other's eyes. Alex's rational side was trying desperately to get him to stop the moment and get away from Fiore, but it was over shadowed by the new voice in his mind, which told him to just go with the flow. Without warning, Alex slowly moved his head towards Fiore, until Nat interrupted him.

"Yep, that's exactly what I was meaning," Nat's voice rang out from next to the tree, causing Alex and Fiore to jump slightly, and for Alex to let go of Fiore.

"_Ok that was strange, what was I thinking, and why do I suddenly feel depressed?" _Alex wondered sadly, looking away from Fiore. Fiore was having similar thoughts racing through her mind.

"W_hat was he doing and, more importantly, what would have happened if Nathaniel hadn't stopped us?" s_he thought to herself. _"Although it was a nice feeling being next to him, and he has such a nice body that I...no don't even think about it, Fiore, you're a dragon and he is a human, it is just wrong in so many ways," _she thought, mentally scolding herself.

"So how long have you two known each other for?" Nat's voice said, breaking both Fiore and Alex out of their train of thought.

"Since yesterday, I came across her in this forest, and rescued her from a group of apes that were trying to capture her," Alex said.

"I could have taken them myself," Fiore said indignantly.

"Sure you could have," Nat said sarcastically.

"Actually she could have; it's just she managed to trap her leg between a tree root," Alex said softly.

"Wait, you mean a dragon got her leg caught in a tree root, hahaha, that's so funny," Nat said, as he started laughing.

"It isn't funny, how would you like to have your leg caught in a tree root, with your enemies slowly walking towards you, about to kill you?" Fiore suddenly yelled angrily, but whilst also blushing.

"Oh I would be fine, because I have my hidden blades; you don't have anything," Nat replied goading.

"Not the best move ever," Alex said quietly. Fiore looked like she was going to rip Nat's heart out and devour it whole. "Fiore wasn't defenceless, she still had her element, fire," Alex said, glaring at Nat.

"So why didn't she use it?" Nat queried.

Fiore had calmed down and now looked slightly embarrassed at this, as she said, "I was weakened from the long journey, and I couldn't afford to waste energy on an elemental attack," she said sadly.

"So meanwhile Alex was awesome and saved you on his own? Man, Alex, I think you just stepped up a notch," Nat said, beaming at Alex, who just glared back at him.

"I didn't save her completely, in fact she actually saved me from the last one; without her, I wouldn't be here," Alex said kindly to Fiore, who looked at him with a surprised expression on her face.

"Did you just say I saved you?" she asked, sounding shocked.

"Of course, I mean you did use fire to burn him until I could strike him," Alex said, smiling at her, and causing her to look away, blushing harder than before.

"Hold on, didn't you say that you were on a long journey, where did you come from?" Nat asked, interrupting the solemn moment. Fiore looked really uncomfortable, so Alex answered for her.

"She had recently escaped from a prison; she also has a brother who is also in prison," he said softly. "Really, how so, and what happened to your brother?" Nat asked.

Fiore looked really upset at this, but answered with, "We were both walking along in this forest, when all of a sudden, these apes came out of nowhere; I tried to fight them off, but there were too many," Fiore said sadly.

"So what happened?" Nat repeated.

"They...they...took my brother," Fiore suddenly cried, bursting into tears, "I couldn't stop them, I failed my brother," she sobbed.

Alex looked at Fiore, and suddenly felt really sad as well. He placed his arm around her like before, and said softly, "It wasn't your fault, Fiore; you did what you could and that was enough to keep you both alive."

"But why, why couldn't I have been stronger?" Fiore continued to cry.

"You can't be everything, but I have promised you that we will rescue him," Alex continued soothingly, and when Fiore looked at him with tear stained eyes, he continued, "and I'll do anything to rescue you if you're in danger." Fiore stopped crying, and leant her head on Alex's chest.

"You mean it, don't you?" she said quietly.

"Of course, you mean more to me than anyone has ever meant to me before," Alex said, not bothering to think about what he was saying. As he spoke, he put his right arm around Fiore's back, and began stroking her head with his left hand. He wasn't sure if it would help, but when she began purring he knew that he was doing the right thing.

"Thank you Alex," she purred happily, closing her eyes as Alex kept stroking her head.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Nathaniel said, ruining the moment for both Fiore and Alex.

Alex glared angrily at Nat, and caused his eyes to briefly change to glowing red and blue.

"Wow, dude, your eyes just changed colour," Nat said, noticing for the first time. Alex and Fiore were both surprised by this.

"Did they, what colour did they turn?" Fiore asked Nat, looking between them. Alex closed his eyes for a moment, and the answer came to him.

"Red and blue, am I right?" he said, opening his eyes and looking at Nat.

"Yea, I'm not going to ask how you know that," he replied.

Alex smiled slightly, before saying, "You're the genius here, so do you think you can explain why my eyes change colour?"

Nat thought for a moment. "Well, at a guess I'd have to say that it was something to do with the fact that we've gone through into this world from our own; to be honest though, I have no idea," he said, without pausing for breath.

"Wow, your explanations are SOooo complicated," Fiore remarked, sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Well, if your theory is correct, then it would explain why your eyes and hair have also changed colour," Alex said, pointing at his eyes and hair in turn.

"Wait, what colour are they?" Nat asked, grabbing his hair.

"Well, for what I can see, you now have dull red eyes, instead of your normal coloured eyes, and now you also have ghostly white hair instead of brown hair," Alex explained.

"Wow, now all I need is a huge broadsword, two guns and a red coat, and I can be like Dante," Nat exclaimed. Alex shook his head in despair.

"Nathaniel, just because you are faster than normal and have white hair, doesn't mean that you can be like Dante," he muttered.

"Who's Dante?" Fiore asked.

"He's a half-demon hero of a game series known as 'Devil May Cry'," Alex explained, and seeing the confused look on Fiore's face, he added, "just think of him as a sort of myth in our world, only much more well known." Fiore still looked confused, and then suddenly yawned.

"Well it's getting late and I'm tired," she said.

"Yea, we should probably get some rest," Alex said, leaning his head back on the log and closing his eyes. Fiore thought for a moment, before lying down next to Alex like before, with her head resting near Alex's own.

"You don't mind me sleeping here, do you?" She asked softly. Alex was unsure, and was still worried about what had almost happened a few minutes ago. But when he looked into Fiore's eyes, he made his decision.

"N-No I don't mind," he said, stuttering slightly, and then blushing after he had finished talking. Fiore smiled at him, and closed her eyes, whilst Nat simply rolled his eyes.

"Why do I even bother?" he moaned.

Alex ignored him, and after a few minutes, he fell asleep. It was then that something strange happened. In Alex's dream he found himself in vast, open grassland, surrounded by trees and a river that flowed across the land. "Ah, one of my favourite dreams; a vast open nature scene with nothing but plants and trees for the eye to see," Alex sighed, looking around the dream world.

"_All good things must come to an end you know," _a voice said behind him.

Alex whipped around, and was surprised to see...himself! Although it wasn't really himself, because this one was taller and thinner than he was, and had blue eyes instead of the blue/green eyes Alex normally had.

"Who are you?" Alex asked.

"_Your true self," _the doppelgänger replied, smiling.

"Nice, any reason why you're standing here?" Alex queried.

"**Because he is here to stop me," **a new voice said, again behind Alex.

Alex looked behind him to see a black dragon walking towards him. The dragon was about the same size as Fiore, had red eyes, six horns around the back of its head, black scales, and a dark blue underbelly. The dragon's tail was coated in a thick cloud of shadow, which seemed to be emanating from the base of its tail. Alex eyed the dragon with caution.

"And you would be?" he asked. The dragon smiled.

"**I am you, or more correctly, your better half," **the dragon replied. Alex took a few steps away from both the human and the dragon.

"Ok, none of what you both of you have said makes any sense to me," Alex said, looking between them. They both looked at each other.

"_Maybe we should explain what's going on," _the human said.

"Please do," Alex replied.

"**First, you know that you are not in your own world, and neither is your friend, Nathaniel," **the dragon said.

"Yea, I think that goes without saying," Alex muttered.

"_What you don't know is that because you have passed through from one world to another, your other halves have been awakened," _the human replied.

"Other halves?"

"**Yes, Nathaniel is a half demon, so he had a few powers and abilities that he normally wouldn't have, he just doesn't know about them yet," **the dragon said.

Alex chuckled. "No matter what he does, he'll never become like Dante; mind you that's a good thing to," he said.

"_And your other half, is the dragon here," _the human said, gesturing to the black dragon. Alex grinned at this.

"So does this mean that I'll have the powers that dragons have?" he asked eagerly.

"**Yes it does, but you won't get them immediately, you'll learn them, given time," **the dragon answered, smiling just like Alex was.

"Sweet," Alex exclaimed, before something dawned on him; "Err, does this have anything to do with why Fiore looks so good to me?" he asked. Neither of his human side, nor his dragon side answered his question. They simply smiled at him evilly, and walked away from him. "Wait, you haven't answered my question," he yelled at them.

"**Sorry, but it's time for you to awaken; don't be too surprised by what you and your friends find," **his dragon side called back smugly.

"What could he mean by th-?" Alex said, before his vision was blinded by a white light.

When he came too, he found himself back where he had fallen asleep. But he could tell that something was different, and he suddenly felt the same jolt of pain in his head. He gasped and held his hand up to his head. As soon as he did, the pain was gone, and he looked at his hand. He let out a gasp, because his hand now had the faint outlines of dragon scales all over it. It was the same with the rest of his body. Alex regained his composure, and smiled.

"So this is what he meant, funny," he muttered.

"Who meant what?" Fiore's voice said from Alex's right. He looked down at her and smiled at her. She lifted her head up and looked directly at him for a second, before her eyes widened.

"Yea I know, I've got scales that are semi-hidden," Alex said, answering Fiore's unasked question. Fiore however just sat gawping at him, her eyes examining every visible part of his skin.

"That...is...weird," she finally said, looking up at his face.

"Yea, I know, but who cares about me, what's more interesting is that Nat over there," Alex said, gesturing to where Nat lay, "is a half demon." Fiore looked even more shocked by this news than seeing Alex with scales on him.

"Morning all," Nat said, suddenly waking up. He noticed both Fiore and Alex looking at him, although Fiore seemed to be glaring at him. "What are you all looking at, do I have something on my face?" he asked.

"No, I've just been told that you're a half-demon," Fiore said coldly.

"Oh is that all...wait, what?" Nat asked, unsure that he had heard what he had heard.

"I'm afraid it's true; in my dream my human and...Dragon sides told me that our other halves had been awakened," Alex said calmly. He noticed that Fiore had now begun staring at him after he had mentioned 'dragon side'.

"Awesome!" Nat exclaimed, jumping up and doing a pose with his swords. Alex shook his head and returned to resting it on the log.

"So you mean that you're...half dragon?" Fiore quietly asked Alex, ignoring Nat. Alex looked at her, and then smiled.

"Yep, looks that way, mind you, I don't even want to know how this is possible," he said, causing Fiore to smile at him.

"So...where should we be going to?" Nat asked suddenly.

"I have no idea, Ignitus said that we were standing in a forest according to his vision," Alex answered.

"Well, how about we use this time to go looking for some things to kill? Nat almost shouted in his eagerness. Alex looked at him with a look that implied that he thought he was strange.

"Sure why not, it could be fun, and I need to find out what I can do with these swords divided anyway," Alex finally said.

"Alright, I'm going to be leading us, and I say that we go...," Nat began.

"Who says you're leading?" Fiore asked, glaring at him.

"I do, and since I'm faster than both of you, what I say goes," Nat replied, demonstrating by running around them faster than their minds could process where he was. Alex snorted, got up and stuck his left arm out. A split second later, Nat ran into his hand, and fell to the ground.

"We are really going to have to work on that ego of yours," Alex said with a hint of smugness, whilst Nat got to his feet, grumbling. "And besides, if any one's leading us it's Fiore, because she knows more about this world than we do combined," Alex continued, smiling at Fiore, who smiled back.

"Oh yea, trust you to side with the female," Nat grumbled. Alex said nothing, and followed Fiore, who had already begun to walk through the forest.

"That mountain looks like a good place to go to," Fiore said as they walked.

"Hey, wait up," Nat called to them, as he tried to catch up.

"What's the matter, I thought you could run faster than us?" Alex gloated.

"Yea but that takes more energy than it should," Nat said defensively as he caught up to them, whilst panting.

"Wimp," Fiore muttered under her breath.

They continued walking through the forest, unaware that they would soon find something that would be a shock to them all, for the wrong reasons.

**Cliffhanger, I wonder who or what they are going to find. Anyway I'm slowly working on the romance sub plot as shown. Please read and review, and until next time, bye...**


	6. An old friend, brawls and a shock

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. In this chapter our hero's encouter an old friend form Alex's world, and an interesting plot twit happenes at the end of this chapter. With that said on with the story...**

**Chapter 5: An old friend, brawls and a shock**

It had been about 1 hour since Alex and Fiore had begun walking through the forest, and they were already lost. "I thought you said that Fiore knew her way around this world," Nat groaned, as they found themselves back in an all too familiar part of the forest.

"I didn't say that she knew her way around this forest, all I said was that she knew more about this world than either of us," Alex replied calmly.

"Well, at least we know that there is only one other way to those mountains now," Fiore said, walking off down a path that they hadn't tried.

"I'm starting to wonder if this forest isn't enchanted," Nat grumbled.

"Stop moaning," Alex growled.

"Why?" Nat asked.

"Because it's annoying me, and although I have good patience, if pushed too much I might just punch you again," Alex replied coldly.

"Fine, but the first enemy we find, I get to kill," Nat said.

"I can't promise you that," Alex replied, before he walked faster and caught up with Fiore.

"There are times when I think you two hate each other," Fiore remarked, looking back at Nat, who had now drawn one of his swords and was swinging it around his head idly.

"It's what we normally do...and it looks like we are getting closer to those mountains," Alex said suddenly.

"I have to say, this would be easier if we had just flown there," Fiore said. Alex looked at her for a second.

"Just because I'm half dragon doesn't mean that I can automatically fly," he said.

"I know, I'm just saying that it would have been faster, so as soon as we get back to the temple, I'm going to teach you how to fly," Fiore replied, an evil grin forming on her face.

"Great, why do I get the feeling that this is going to end badly?" Alex muttered as they arrived at the edge of the forest.

They stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at it. Fiore remembered that there had been a purple light near to this location, so she immediately started looking around, expecting to be attacked by something.

"That cave up there looks interesting; let's go see if there's anything of value in it," Nat said, practically running up the mountain in his eagerness.

"He is going to get himself killed sometime, isn't he?" Fiore told Alex, who smiled.

"Yea well, I wonder how much his demon heritage will be able to protect him," Alex pondered, before following him up the mountain, along with Fiore.

Meanwhile from the cave, a light-yellow dragon was watching them as they travelled up the mountain towards the cave.

"Oh look, more little playthings, all for me," the dragon giggled evilly, before retreating into the cave.

Alex heard the giggling and looked up to see nothing but the entrance of the cave. He narrowed his eyes before continuing on up to the cave. Nat had already reached the mouth of the cave, and was looking around the entrance.

"Looks like this cave goes on into the mountain from here," he said, as Fiore and Alex caught up to him.

"Well yea...caves tend to do that a lot, you know," Alex remarked sarcastically as he and Fiore walked into the cave.

"I'm not stupid; I was just stating a fact," Nat replied.

"Yea, an obvious one too," Fiore remarked smugly as she walked with Alex. Nat shrugged and followed them.

The cave itself looked normal, but Alex could sense something wasn't right about it, as he walked down through the cave. He tried to pass it off as just an odd feeling, but the further into the cave he went, the stronger the feeling was. The feelings made him feel strange, as if he were being drained. Fiore noticed this.

"Alex, are you ok?" she asked, looking up at him.

"What...yea...yea I'm fine...just fine," Alex said unconvincingly.

"Alex, I can see that something is wrong, so tell me," Fiore asked, her voice starting to sound worried. Alex stopped for a moment.

"There's something about this place; I can feel something dark...yet powerful here," he said darkly, glaring down into the tunnel.

"Really? I can't feel anything," Nat said, running down the tunnel in front of them.

"Nathaniel, don't go any further, there's something wrong here," Alex warned him, suddenly sounding very serious.

"Why, there's nothing here... ok scratch that, there's a room with torch's and a...," Nat replied, before suddenly crying out in pain and the scrabbling of feet. Alex sighed.

"Good grief, I did warn him," he said exasperatedly, before running down the tunnel, closely followed by Fiore.

They arrived in a torch-lit room; with a strange altar at the far end. The room looked like it was something from a cult's hideout, because it had all sorts of strange statues around the room. And right in the middle of the room was Nat, being attacked by a light-yellow-coloured dragon. The dragon was about the same age and size as Fiore was, and had a brown underbelly, blue eyes, two yellow horns and at the base of its tail was a heart shaped object. The dragon was on top of Nat, and was at present biting his neck.

"You taste different to the others I've devoured," the yellow dragon said. Its voice was both female and familiar to Alex. Despite the gravity of the situation, Alex felt the need to say something.

"Wow, Nat, I knew that you wanted to have a girl on top of you, but I didn't think you'd go that far," he said smugly. As soon as he spoke, the dragoness looked at him, and Alex saw a mad look in her eyes.

"Ah, I wonder if this one tastes as good as you do?" it said, before leaping at Alex. Alex dived out of the way, and drew his sword.

"Surely I'll taste that much sweeter if you've had to work to catch me," Alex said coolly, grinning at the dragoness, who grinned back evilly. Once again the dragoness leaped at Alex, who again dodged out of the way.

"Stand still, damn you!" the dragoness growled.

"Not a chance," Alex replied as the dragoness dived at him, only to get hit by Alex's sword and be thrown back a few metres. The dragoness growled again, and leaped towards him, this time unleashing a burst of Electricity at Alex, which he failed to block, and resulted in him being thrown backwards. He came to rest on the altar at the end of the room. He suddenly felt something powerful near him. He looked behind him to see a dark crystal jutting out of the altar.

"_Hmm, I wonder what this is?"_ Alex thought. His thoughts were interrupted by the yellow dragoness, who had leaped onto him, and was now looking at him with lust-filled eyes.

"And now to savour your sweet taste," the dragoness giggled evilly.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you," Fiore growled from the other end of the room. She didn't let the dragoness react as she leaped into the air and used her fire element to burn her. The dragoness yelped in pain and leaped off Alex.

"Thanks, Fiore," Alex said happily as Fiore landed next to him.

"HOW DARE YOU STEALE MY MEAL; YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT," the dragoness growled angrily. Without warning, she leaped at Fiore and tried to sink her teeth into her neck. Alex however stopped her by slashing her side, and forcing her off Fiore.

Whilst all this was going on, Nat had recovered, and was running towards them as they all fought. The yellow dragoness noticed him running towards her, and grinned evilly. She leaped at him, but this time missed him as he dodged out of the way.

"Hey, Nathaniel, mind taking care of this dragon, with Fiore? This evil crystal needs attention," Alex called to him.

"Sure, leave me with the hard time; alright you yellow dog, it's time to take you for a walk," Nat replied, trying to sound cool.

"Nathaniel, don't even try to sound cool, you'll fail before you even start," Fiore groaned, leaping next to him as they stared down their opponent.

Alex however was now looking at the crystal, which was now glowing. He looked back at the dragoness, who seemed to be affected by the dark crystal, because she was now attacking Fiore and Nat a lot faster than before.

"Of course, this crystal must be giving her power," Alex exclaimed. He quickly grabbed his sword, which he had dropped when the dragoness had leaped on him. "Time to see how strong this crystal is," Alex muttered, raising the sword to attack it. He brought the sword down on the crystal, slicing off the top left part. He heard the Dragoness scream in rage, and looked back to see it running towards him, an insane look in her eyes. Alex dodged out of the way just as the dragoness leaped at him, causing her to fly into the crystal. The crystal suddenly exploded, sending both Alex and the dragoness flying to the opposite end of the room. Whilst Alex was flying through the air, he felt his dragon side urging him to move his body backwards. When he did this, he succeeded in somersaulting in mid air and managed to land his feet on the ground.

"Too easy," Alex said smugly. The yellow dragoness wasn't so skilled, and ended up hitting the cave wall, and falling to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

"ALEX," Fiore yelled, running over to him. "Are you ok?" she asked him.

"Well, since I just pulled off an acrobatic feat in mid air, yea, I feel fine," Alex replied, grinning at her.

"So, what do you think we should do about her?" Nat asked, nodding at the yellow dragoness.

"I don't think we should kill her; there's something about her that seems familiar to me," Alex said, walking over to her as he spoke. He knelt down and brushed his hand against her head. She let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes.

"Who...are you?" she asked, looking up at him.

"My name is Alex, but I think the better question is, who are you and why did you attack us?" Alex asked her.

"I...I don't know. I've been in this cave for two days, and yet all I can remember is a dark crystal hitting me with a cloud of darkness, and then...nothing," she replied, sitting up. Fiore and Nat had arrived at Alex's side at this point, and were both glaring angrily at her, which made her feel sad.

"You haven't answered who you are yet," Nat asked her coldly. The dragoness looked at him, then back at Alex, and suddenly her eyes widened.

"Alex, I remember you; we once belonged on earth, my name is...Shannon," she said slowly. Alex smiled at her.

"I can see that going from one universe to this one has brought out your true self," Alex said. Nat was gawping at Shannon, whilst she looked over herself.

"Yea, I know, this makes no sense," she said, looking back at Alex.

"Well I guess that must mean anyone who is here from our own world is either dragon, half dragon like me, or a half demon like Nathaniel over there," Alex said, gesturing to Nat.

"Half dragon, half demon, great," Shannon replied sarcastically.

"Anyway, if it's all the same with you lot, I think we should get back to the temple," Fiore said, sounding calm even though she was still looking Shannon as if she thought that she was going to attack them again.

"Good idea, I can't stand being in this cave any longer," Alex said, walking towards the cave exit. Shannon stood up and made to follow him.

"Do you think I could tag along with you? I mean I have nowhere to go," she asked Alex.

"Sure, of course we'll let you come with us," Nat answered quickly.

"You sound keen, but I guess it could be fun to have you along with us," Alex remarked.

"At this rate we are going to have an army travelling with us," Fiore muttered angrily as she walked next to Alex.

"I don't intend to have an army; at least I don't have enough friends for that yet," Alex said jokingly.

"So far, the only friends you have all tried to kill you and me," Fiore replied.

"Hopefully she'll be the last of the friends we meet up with," Alex said quietly, so that only Fiore would hear him.

"I hope so too," she replied, smiling slightly. They didn't say anything until they had walked out of the cave. The sun was very bright to their eyes, since they had been in a very dark cave.

"Ah, sunlight, how I've missed it," Shannon remarked.

"Yea, being in a cave next to an evil crystal must have had draw backs like that," Alex said, before he began walking down the mountain. When they all reached the bottom, Alex turned to Fiore, and asked her, "So do you have any idea which way the temple is from here?" Fiore looked around, and shock her head.

"Great, that means we are lost...again," Nat said.

"Oh come on, we are not lost until we get to somewhere we don't know about, so let's see how far through the forest we can get before it's dark," Alex said calmly, walking off into the forest, followed by the rest of them. Shannon tried to walk next to Alex, but received a cold glare from Fiore, which warned her to tread carefully.

"So Alex, where are we?" she asked him.

"I have no idea what world or universe we are in, but I do know that we are in a forest," Alex joked.

"I was being serious," Shannon replied.

"And so was I. As far as I know, we are in a world where dragons exist and humans don't exist except as apes; as well as that, there are also a number of species that can talk like we can," Alex explained.

"Nice, so it's basically like a fantasy world then," she remarked.

"Well, I guess you could say that," Alex replied.

They all walked through the forest, and didn't find anything for a few hours. Eventually Nat and Shannon started arguing about something, so Alex and Fiore decided to walk ahead of them.

"Of all the people from my old world, I had to get those two," Alex sighed.

"Hey, at least it keeps us and them entertained," Fiore remarked, smiling at him.

"Too right," Alex replied, smiling back.

"This is getting tiresome; how much more of this forest do we have to go through?" Nat complained as they all neared a familiar riverside.

"Not too far now, since I recognise this place; this is where we camped out last night," Alex said, looking around.

"Good, I'm getting blisters on my feet," Nat said, still complaining.

"Oh stop moaning, how do you think I feel only having paws?" Shannon grumbled.

"Would you two stop moaning; I had to put up with Nathaniel complaining this morning, and I don't think I can stand two people complaining constantly," Fiore growled at them. That quietened both of them down. "Thank you; now from here, we need to head west into the swamp, and then we should be able to reach the temple before too long," Fiore told them.

They both groaned at the thought of more walking. Alex had by this point already started walking towards the swamp. He turned back to look at Nat and Shannon.

"So are you two going to get up and continue with us, or what?" Alex asked them. Shannon sprang up and walked over to Alex.

"I don't think I'll be able to go much further. Do you think you could carry me to the temple?" she asked in a sweet tone.

Fiore suddenly looked rather hostile towards her, and rounded on her saying, "No way, Alex isn't carrying you or anyone."

"Blimey, what's gotten you so pissed off? Besides, I am actually tired out. I mean that fight that we had in the cave took a lot out of me," she said defensively.

"Yea, well maybe you should have stopped yourself from fighting us," Fiore snarled. Alex smiled and put his hand on Fiore's head.

"It's hardly her fault if she's tired out, since that dark crystal must have been controlling her," he said, trying to calm Fiore down.

"Of course you'd say that, I mean she is an old friend of yours," Fiore replied in a slightly calmer tone, looking up at him.

"But all the same, I'd rather not have to carry her through a swamp," Alex said in a tone that sounded amused, and made Fiore smile.

"Hey, if anyone's going to be carried, it's me," Nat exclaimed from where he was lying.

"Are you saying a half-demon can't walk more than five miles?" Shannon gloated.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying," Nat replied.

"Tough, you're both walking like the rest of us, because until me and Shannon work out how to fly, we are stuck walking around," Alex said smugly, grinning at their disappointed expressions.

They all then resumed their journey back to the temple. When they were heading through the swamp, Nat and Shannon would at times get stuck in the mud, whilst Alex and Fiore just laughed at them. When they got through the swamp, it was almost night time.

"Man, I hope the temple has some food, I'm starving," Alex said as they walked through the doors of it.

"I'm sure there'll be some somewhere in the kitchens," Fiore replied.

"I sure hope so, I haven't eaten anything for a day, and it's taking its toll on me," Shannon said sadly.

"Well, first I'll have to introduce you both to Ignitus, and after that I'll see what I can find food wise," Alex replied.

It took only a few minutes to arrive in the main set of rooms in the temple. He looked around, and spotted Ignitus, who was busy looking into the pool of visions. When he heard the door open, he looked up. "Ah, you've returned, I see, and with a few more, no less," he said, noticing Shannon and Nat.

"Yep, and both of them are friends from my own world, no less," Alex said walking over to a pillar, and leaning on it in a casual sort of way. Ignitus looked back at Nat and Shannon.

"I imagined that both would be human like you, yet one of them isn't," Ignitus said, looking directly at Shannon. Shannon was rather intimidated by Ignitus, since she had never seen a large dragon before.

"That could be because none of us are truly human," Alex replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Ignitus asked.

"Well, for a start, I think Shannon over there has been affected by the whole 'travelling through to another world' thing, so she now looks and seems to be a dragon - one which can use lightning no less," Alex explained.

"I see, continue," Ignitus replied, sitting down to look at them. Alex turned and looked at Nat.

"Nathaniel, over there, doesn't look any different, but he himself is actually half-demon, and from what I've seen for the last 24 hours, not a very good one," Alex remarked jokingly.

"Hey, it's not my fault, I have no idea how to be one," Nat replied angrily. Alex ignored him.

"And finally, it seems that I'm actually half-dragon, half-human. I'm not sure how that's possible," Alex said calmly. Ignitus's eyes widened at this news.

"A half-dragon? That's something that has only ever been heard about in legends," he said in an awe-filled voice.

"Nice, what exactly does it say about my kind in these legends?" Alex asked. Ignitus closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recall the legend.

"There has only ever been one case like this, and it was during the time of the first purple dragon," Ignitus answered, opening his eyes.

"So that means that one of my kind existed about ten generations ago, am I right?" Alex said, closing his eyes and taping into his draconic powers to find out the answer.

"You-your right, how did you know that?" Ignitus replied, sounding startled. At this point, everyone was looking at Alex with a suspicious expression on their faces.

"I believe this is due to the draconic powers that I get from my dragon-side; so far that is all I know how to do," Alex replied, opening his eyes, which were now glowing blue and red like the previous times. The red eyes reminded Ignitus of someone, but he couldn't remember who.

"Ah, it seems Spyro has returned, and with Volteer no less," Ignitus said suddenly, looking to the left doorway.

Alex looked up to see Spyro walking through into the room, with a yellow-scaled dragon behind him, which he assumed to be Volteer. As soon as Shannon saw Spyro, her eyes lit up, and large smile appeared on her face. She walked over to him, in a way that would have been seductive to any teenager.

"Hello there, you must be Spyro, the purple dragon everyone's talking about," she said, in a sweet tone.

"Err, yea I guess I am," Spyro replied, sounding nervous. Shannon's grin intensified, and she moved closer to him, until her head was right next to his.

"I think you're rather handsome, and cute," she whispered to him, causing him to blush and scrabble back away from her. Alex couldn't help but smile at this as his eyes returned to normal, but thought it best to stop Shannon before she freaked Spyro out too much. He walked over to them.

"Alright, Shannon, I think Spyro's had enough of that," he said. Shannon looked up at Alex, and Spyro used this as a cue to escape from her.

"Aw, you had to go and spoil my fun, didn't you," she moaned sadly, looking back over at Spyro to see him hiding behind Ignitus, whilst Sparx just laughed at him.

"Need I remind you that Spyro is about twelve, and you're fifteen? I don't think what you did is appropriate," Alex replied, sounding slightly annoyed. Shannon looked over to where Spyro was now talking with Ignitus and Volteer, who were all gathered around the pool of visions.

"Hmm, I guess you're right, but he's so lovely and..." she began.

"You have only just seen him, yet you think that; either you have suddenly got naive, or something else is up," Alex responded.

After a few minutes, Volteer and Spyro made their way towards the training room, where Volteer was going to teach Spyro about electricity and what he could do with it as an element. Seeing as how Shannon controlled electricity, Alex nudged her, and told her to go and train with them. Of course when she did walk over and suggest the idea, Spyro quickly moved to the other side of Volteer, so as to not be anywhere near her. Sparxs found this extremely funny.

"Aw no, the great purple dragon is scared of a horny dragoness," he remarked, quietly enough so that Shannon wouldn't hear him.

"I'm guessing training will take a while since a complete novice is training with them, so how about we turn in for the night?" Alex suggested, as he watched them begin training. Ignitus nodded at this.

"Hold on, where are we all sleeping, and more to the point where can I get some food? I'm starving," Nat said suddenly.

"Well, the kitchens have some food that I got for you all, but for rooms you'll have to find them yourselves," Ignitus replied.

"I'll show you where the rooms are; the kitchen is down there," Fiore said, gesturing to one of the large doors, before leading them through a different one. They entered into a corridor, which had several rooms on each side.

"Blimey, there must have been a lot of dragons living here," Alex exclaimed, looking into each room he passed by.

"This temple existed for many generations, so you can imagine what went on here," Fiore replied, smiling slightly.

"Yea, I can - dragons running around the place, all of them laughing, playing with each other, all without a care in the world," Alex said, his voice having a hint of longing in it as he walked out of a room he had walked into.

All of the rooms were the same, because they only had a bed, a bookcase and a window in them. There was one room that caught Alex's interest however. When he walked by the room, he instantly knew who it belonged to. "This is your room Fiore, isn't it?" he said, startling her.

"Yes it is...how do you know these things?" she asked him.

"I really don't know," he replied.

Almost instinctively, he brushed the door with his hand. Suddenly his vision gained a hint of blue to it. He looked around the corridor and saw two small dragons running down the corridor. The one that was in the lead was a red dragoness that looked exactly like Fiore, just a lot younger. The second dragon however was more interesting, because it had black scales and red eyes. Alex suddenly wrenched his hand away from the door. As soon as he did this, his vision returned to normal, and he stood where he was, holding his hand, whilst shaking slightly.

"Alex, what happened, are you ok?" Fiore asked, sounding worried.

"Yea, I'm fine, I just saw something interesting," he replied, still holding his hand, though he had stopped shaking at this point.

"Really, what was it?" she asked.

"I think I'll tell you when we are alone," Alex said, looking at Nat.

"Ok, I get the message, you want to be alone; just don't do anything you'll regret later," Nat replied, walking out of the corridor and towards the kitchen.

When he was gone, Fiore pushed the door to her room open, and walked in, followed by Alex who sat down on the bed. Fiore leaped up onto the bed next to him and lay down so that she was looking directly at him.

"So what did you see?" she asked him.

Alex looked at her, took a deep breath and said, "I saw a vision of you running with a black dragon."

"What!" she exclaimed. Alex didn't answer. "Care to explain why you needed to tell me this in private?" she asked him. This time Alex moved his head so he was looking directly into her eyes.

"Because I believe that dragon...was ME," he said slowly, watching a look of surprise form on Fiore's face.

**Ohh, now that was unexpected, but is it true...only i know the answer to that. Anyway as always please read and review this chapter. Until next time, bye...**


	7. Visions of 'his' past

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. This chapter is mostly going to focus on Alex and Fiore delving into the past. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 6: Visions of 'his' past**

Meanwhile in the training room, Shannon and Spyro were being taught how to use Electricity by Volteer. Despite how many times Spyro tried to get away from Shannon, he was doing quite well with the training.

Shannon was finding it harder, but managed to succeed after a few attempts for each trial. When it came to using an electrical blast to knock dummies into the targets, she did surprisingly well. When she walked over to give Spyro room, she gave him a flirtious wink, which made him blush and move away from her quicker. She sat down and watched him train, eyeing up every part of his body. She found him intriguing, partially because of his colour but mostly because she found him rather cute, especially when he was nervous.

Spyro on the other hand found it rather disturbing that she kept looking at him like that, but managed to remain focused during the rest of the tests.

At one point Nat walked into the room, having found a slice of meat to eat. It just so happened to be the time when Spyro was about to unleash his fury. When he did, a large blast of electricity was unleashed, though Nat was standing far enough way not to get hit by it.

"Wow, now that is what I call power," he exclaimed.

"Yea," Shannon said dreamily. Nat looked at her and shook his head.

"Please tell me you aren't falling for him?" he asked her.

"What...no," she said indignantly, though her face showed that she had been thinking along those lines.

"Great, everyone's falling for someone except me, just great," he muttered sarcastically. Shannon didn't know how to react to this statement.

"Well it looks like Spyro and Volteer have finished training, so I'm off to find somewhere to sleep," Shannon said, walking off towards the door that led to the sleeping quarters.

Nat shrugged to himself and followed her. They both walked down the corridor until they came across the door to Fiore's room, which was still open. They both stopped and looked in to see Alex and Fiore sitting together on the bed, both staring into each other's eyes.

_Seconds earlier..._

"_Because I believe that dragon...was ME," Alex said slowly, watching a look of surprise form on Fiore's face. _For a moment, Fiore was too shocked to even think of an answer to what he had just said.

"But...that's...I...you...how," she spluttered, backing away from him across the bed.

"I know, it's all rather sudden and unexpected, but it's the truth," Alex said sincerely. Fiore finally was able to come to terms with what Alex had said.

"But, how can you be? You look nothing like him and you're not even the right..." she began, before she realised that what he was saying was actually very likely. "Oh, of course, those black scales and the red eyes you have, they are exactly like how his...yours looked back then," she said slowly, sounding calmer.

"I know; what I want to know is how I ended up in the human world, and gained a human form," Alex replied sadly. Fiore saw a tear run down the side of his face, before he spoke again. "...And try as much as I want to, I can't remember anything of my past, only that I did live here...with you," he said, his voice filled with sadness. At this point Alex was crying soundlessly.

Fiore looked at him, and felt a great amount of sympathy towards him. She shuffled closer to him, and extended her wing around him. He looked at her, and gave her a smile, which she returned.

"Then we'll find out, and I'll help you remember the good times we had together," Fiore said softly, retracting her wing from around him. Alex dried his tears and looked into her eyes, this time gazing directly into them.

"Thank you...Fiore," Alex said softly, smiling up at her.

"Well this looks fun," Shannon said, smiling at them both. They both jumped when they heard her talk and looked round to see both Nat and Shannon looking at them.

"Err...hi guys, how long have you been stood there?" Alex nervously asked them.

"In truth we've only just got here," Shannon said, not noticing Alex relax slightly.

"Looks like you've been making a move, haven't you, Alex?" Nat grinned, whilst Alex blushed.

"Nat, absolutely nothing was happening between me and Fiore," Alex quickly told him, though Nat was now looking suspiciously at him.

"Really, now where have I heard that before?" he replied, folding his arms and glaring at them.

"It's true, all we've done is have an...enlightening conversation with each other," Fiore said, choosing her words carefully.

"Enlightening...so does that mean you've asked each other out?" Nat remarked, trying to goad them both.

"WHAT? ...No," they both yelled, looking away from each other.

"Really, then what was it all about then?" Nat asked, raising an eye brow at them. Alex turned to look at Fiore, and for a brief moment, they knew that they were both thinking the same thing.

"I'll...tell you later...much later," Alex finally said, looking back at Nat and Shannon.

"Fine, I know that you won't ever tell me on your own, so I'm going to leave you two alone now," Nat said, walking off down the corridor.

Shannon rolled her eyes before following him. When she was a good distance away from the room, she turned to look back at it.

"Aw, that's nice," she said quietly.

"Nice? What's nice about that?" Nat asked, appearing from out of a room he had chosen to take, sounding annoyed.

"Look let's just leave them alone; they've had a hard day, they deserve a rest," Shannon said, walking into a room next to theirs.

"Yea they need a rest, just not right next to each other," Nat muttered as he went into the room.

Shannon merely shook her head and chose a room opposite Nat's.

Meanwhile Alex and Fiore were sat at either ends of the bed, both deep in thought. Alex was trying to remember anything about his past life, but was finding it impossible, whilst Fiore was thinking over the words Nat had said.

"_Enlightening...so does that mean you've asked each other out," he had remarked. "What did he mean by that, does he really think that I like Alex like that?" she thought, as she stared into space. "He is just a friend, and that's how it will stay," she thought angrily, "but what if he has feeling for me, what if he cares about me more than just a friend? No, he can't possibly...but then again, what was he doing yesterday?" she thought sadly. _Fiore was starting to feel confused, because she now was unsure how to feel about him.

"Hey, one thing I've just thought of," Alex's voice suddenly rang out from next to her, bringing her out of her trance, "where exactly should I sleep?" he asked, looking right at her.

This question had a hidden question inside it, which was whether Fiore wanted Alex near her, or as far away as possible. At once, Fiore's rational mind told her to get rid of him as fast as possible, telling her that it was a bad idea to be with him.

"Well...I guess that you could..." she began, pausing due to her being unsure how he'd react.

"I could...?" he asked. Fiore took a deep breath, and said it plainly.

"I guess you could stay here with me," she answered, blushing deeply when she saw the look on his face. Alex was momentarily shocked by what she had said.

"Ah...well I didn't expect that as your answer; I was thinking that you'd tell me to find a room of my own!" Alex said, sounding shocked. Fiore's heart sank slightly.

"_He doesn't like me like that then it seems," she thought sadly._ "If you don't want to, then you can find one if you _really_ want," she sighed sadly, not bothering to hid her disappointment.

"No no, I was just surprised by what you said...it's not every day someone asks me that," Alex quickly replied. There was a long pause, whilst they both tried to think of something to say.

"So where do you want?" Fiore finally asked.

Alex looked around the room. As far as he could see, there really wasn't anywhere for him to sleep except on the floor, or on the bed. Alex guessed that Fiore wouldn't be too happy about the idea of him sleeping on the bed with her, and he didn't like the idea of him telling her to get off it so he could sleep on it. This left one option.

"I'll sleep on the floor," he answered, getting up off the bed. As soon as he tried to lie down on the floor however, Fiore jumped up and stopped him by standing in front of him.

"No, you're not sleeping on the floor; you can have the bed," she said defiantly. While Alex may have wanted the bed, he really didn't want to make somebody have a hard time because of him.

"No it's fine, you can have it; I don't really need anything comfortable to sleep on," he said quickly, even though it was a lie.

Fiore said nothing, but stayed where she was, looking up at him. After a few minutes of silence, they both realised that neither one of them was going to take the bed.

"I guess that we aren't going to solve this any time soon, so I think I have an idea of how to sort this out," Alex finally said, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh, and what's that?" Fiore asked him, with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not sure if you'll like it," he replied, looking away from her. Fiore was rather unsure as how to react.

"I can't see how," she said. Alex sighed, before he spoke again, this time looking at Fiore.

"How about we both sleep on the bed...just not right next to each other?" he quickly added when Fiore's eyes widened.

Fiore didn't say anything for a few seconds, which made Alex think that she didn't like it as he had thought. Fiore on the other hand was now wondering if she had judged him a little too quickly a few minutes ago.

"Alright, you can sleep...with me," she replied, pausing slightly as she realised how it sounded.

Alex smiled at her, before he lay down on the bed, resting his head on his arms. Fiore took a few seconds to decide what she would do. She chose to jump up next to him, and lie down so that she was on his right side.

"This'll be a little awkward if one of us shifts in the night," Alex remarked, shuffling towards the left where the window was, so as to give Fiore more room.

Fiore surprised him by moving closer to him, until her head was only a few centimetres away from his.

"_So much for not sleeping right next to each other," _Alex thought as he smiled at her. The moment she looked into his eyes and smiled back at him, Alex felt the same feeling of attraction towards her as he had done the previous night, except this time it was stronger, as if his dragon side was demanding him to do something. His eyes glowed red, and almost without knowing it, he raised the hand that he had placed on the door of the room an hour ago and placed it on Fiore's head. Almost as soon as his hand touched her head, his vision gained the hint of blue that it had when he touched the door. He looked around, and saw that the room was spinning...or rather his vision was spinning and going in and out of focus.

"What's happening?" he heard Fiore's voice ask. He looked back at her, and saw her looking around as well.

"I guess that we're going to be shown something else from the past," Alex replied, as the image suddenly formed itself.

From what Alex could see, they were looking into the area of the temple where the eggs were stored. In this vision, it seemed that there weren't as many eggs in the room as he might have expected. There were two eggs in particular that the image wanted to show him, as it seemed to be focusing in on them. Alex saw a black coloured egg, and a red egg. He guessed that these held both him and Fiore in them. He guessed right, because a second later, both eggs began to shake and cracks formed within them. Both eggs burst open, to reveal two rather disgruntled-looking dragons.

As soon as that had happened, the vision suddenly changed to show a bunch of young dragons playing together in the temple. Although this image looked nice and calm, the vision put a much different interpretation on the image. Off to the side, the black dragon was sat alone, looking sadly over at the group of dragons. Alex deduced from that, that he had been alienated from them. Realising this brought back memories of being alone, and feeling unloved.

"That was a horrible time in my life," he muttered sadly, staring at the image in front of him.

Just then, the image shifted to show the red dragoness walking up to the black dragon, who looked at her with sorrow filled eyes.

"_Hey, you alright?" she asked him._

"_Yea, apart from being told that I'm evil and an abomination by them," he sighed, nodding at the group of dragons, "which led to them not letting me play with them, apart from that, yea...I'm just fine," he continued, his voice starting to crack as tears began to fall from his eyes. The red dragoness looked at him with sympathy, and lay down next to him. _

"_I don't think you're an abomination, nor do I think you're evil," she said softly, nuzzling his head slightly. The black dragon dried his tears and looked at her with a surprised expression on his face. _

"_You...you don't?" he asked her, sounding just as surprised as he looked. _

_She nodded, and he almost immediately leant against her, which she responded to by placing her wing over him...or at least over part of his back since they were a little short at this age._

"When I saw you like that, alone and an outcast," Alex heard Fiore say from next to him, "I couldn't stand it," she continued sadly, subconsciously resting her head on his chest.

Whether it was because of all the visions of himself with Fiore, or because she was near to him at that moment, Alex suddenly felt a lot more in tune with his dragon side. He looked back at his past self, as a blinding white light appeared in front of his eyes, engulfing everything around him. When the light had cleared, Alex found himself lying face down in some grass.

"Uh, now this feels familiar," he said, trying to stand up. When his legs wouldn't respond, he looked down at them, and saw that he wasn't human any more. He now looked exactly like the black dragon from the visions. "Well this is unexpected," he remarked, finally standing up.

He looked around, and found that he was in the same field as he was from his dream. There was something different about it though, because it now felt more like a memory than a fantasy. Just then, Alex heard movement to his right. He looked over and saw the younger versions of Fiore and himself running through the grass, apparently having a game of tag with each other.

"_You can't catch me, Fiore," the younger Alex said, as he sped through the grass. Almost the second after he had said it, the younger Fiore jumped and tackled him, sending them rolling through the field. They both came to a stop with Fiore on top of Alex._

"_Who says I can't catch you, Alex?" she said smugly._

"_That's cheating; you're meant to tag me with a paw, not slam directly into me," the young Alex protested. _

"_All I can say is...tag you're it," young Fiore replied, gently hitting the young Alex with her paw, before running off and away from him. _

"_Oh no you don't," the young Alex yelled after her, as he jumped up and sped after her. _The present Alex couldn't help but smile at what he was seeing.

"That really was fun," Alex said to himself, as the feelings and memories of the time came to him.

"I absolutely loved those times I had with him," he heard Fiore's voice say. The way she had said it sounded like she was saying it to herself, rather than to anyone else. He turned his head to the left to see her lying watching their past selves as they ran around the field. Alex smiled and walked over to her. When he lay down next to her, she didn't seem to notice him.

"Hello Fiore," he whispered to her, which made her practically jump out of her skin.

She immediately looked at him, and her eyes widened. Before she could say anything though, the vision started spiralling, and the same white blinding light appeared, this time engulfing them both, and seemingly knocking them out.

When Alex came too, he found himself lying on his back on Fiore's bed. The first thing he noticed was that he hadn't changed back from his form he took in the vision.

"Well...that's...interesting," he slowly muttered, moving each part of his body in order to get a feel of it.

He suddenly felt movement right next to him. He looked down to see Fiore sleeping, with her body pressed against his. He smiled and turned his body over carefully so not to wake her. When he did this, he thought he saw her shiver, so he placed his wing over her. Fiore, who was still asleep, purred and shuffled closer to him.

"_She looks so beautiful when she sleeps...wait no, I shouldn't be thinking like that," _he thought, scolding himself as he watched her sleep.

He decided to examine how he looked whilst he waited for her to wake up. From what he could make out, in this form he had black scales, a blue underbelly, and a slightly lighter black/grey colour for his wings, and also at the base of his tail he had the same black shadow cloud. He could feel the six small horns that were dotted evenly around his head and he guessed that he had red eyes.

When he had finished examining himself, he felt Fiore stir. He looked over at her as she groaned and opened her eyes.

"Rise and shine, Fiore," he said, smiling at her.

Fiore turned to look at him, and for a second couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. She rubbed her eyes just to make sure she wasn't still dreaming.

"Alex...you're...you're," she spluttered.

"A black, red eyes dragon, on your bed with you," he answered her unasked question. "Undeniably handsome?" he added with a grin.

"Well yes, that," Fiore grinned at him, earning a wide eyed look from him, "but how can you be like this, you were in a different form yesterday?" she asked. Alex stayed silent for a few seconds, as he gazed out of the window at the swamp below.

"I think those visions may have had something to do with it, but I'm not sure how to change back to my human form," he said finally, looking back at Fiore, who still hadn't noticed that his wing was over her.

"Well...I know, try thinking about what you looked like before this," Fiore suggested.

Alex shrugged and began thinking about his human form. He analysed every single detail in an effort to change back.

Fiore gasped and recoiled away as his body was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of shadow. It took only about five seconds, but as soon as the shadows cleared, Fiore saw that Alex was now in his human form.

"That works," Alex remarked, as he saw that he had successfully changed. Fiore smiled, before realising something.

"Alex, your arms; there are scales more visibly on them," she noted. Alex looked at them, and sure enough, the black scales were more visible now.

"Well, that can only have something to do with me becoming more in tune with my dragon side," he smiled.

"I guess," Fiore replied, suddenly sounding slightly unhappy.

"Hey what's wrong?" Alex asked her.

"Nothing, it's just...can you please turn back to the dragon form?" she asked him.

Alex looked at her suspiciously, but nevertheless complied. He began to think about how he looked in his dragon form. This time the cloud of shadow spun around him, and took slightly longer to disappear. When it did, he was back in his dragon form.

"I'm going to have to get used to changing back and forth, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically. Fiore smiled and nuzzled his head. He was surprised by this, but nevertheless returned the gesture.

"I prefer you in this form; I feel so much calmer around you," Fiore said softly, closing her eyes as she lent her head on his neck, just below his head. Alex kept smiling, believing this to just be relief that she was with him after so long apart.

"While I'm sure you'd like to stay here with me, I think we should see what everyone else is up to," Alex said suddenly, moving away from Fiore as he did so. "And I think I'll keep hidden that I can now be like this; you know, so as not to freak them out too much," he added, ignoring the disappointed look on Fiore's face.

"I guess you're right," she said sadly, as he transformed back into his human form.

He stood up and walked out of the room, shortly followed by Fiore. They both walked into the main part of the temple, to find Ignitus gazing into the pool of visions, whilst Spyro was walking round the temple with Sparx. When they entered the room, Ignitus briefly looked up and saw them.

"Ah Alex, Fiore, it's good that you're awake. I've just seen something that may interest you," he told them.

"Interesting, how?" Alex asked.

"Well, I've seen a vision of an ape encampment in the forest to the east," Ignitus began.

"Let me guess; you naturally want us to get rid of them," Alex deduced.

"Yes, but I want you to get rid of them quietly, so as to not draw any attention," Ignitus replied.

"Quietly... huh...well then, we had best not take Nathaniel with us; he isn't one for being stealthy," Alex smiled.

"I second that," Fiore agreed.

"Be that as it may, I think that he should go with you, and so should Shannon."

"And why do you say that?" Alex asked.

"Because I don't think Spyro can stand her looking at him like she does," Ignitus answered, failing to hide his amusement.

"Ah, I see."

"Well, I think it best that you wake those two and get going. I'll be sending Spyro to find Cyril the Ice Guardian soon," Ignitus continued.

"Not much point in waking us; we are already here," the voice of Nat came from the open door way. Alex smiled slightly.

"Right, now that we are all up, let's go," he said, walking towards the exit to the temple, followed shortly by everyone else.

"Great...where are we going?" Nat asked as they walked through the corridors.

"You'll see when we get there," Alex replied, grinning slightly as they walked out into the swamp, and headed towards the forest.

**And thats where I'll leave this chapter. Alex seems to be able to transform into his dragon form, which is a good thing. As always please read and review this story. Until next time, bye...**


	8. Sword Skills

**Hi everyone, I'm back once again with the next chapter of this story. In this chapter Alex demonstrates his skills with his sword, and then they all find something very interesting. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 7: Sword Skills**

Traipsing through the swamp was rather dull and boring this time for Alex, as he casually stepped over or to the side of any mud traps, whilst Shannon and Nat simply fell in them. While this was funny at first, it got boring very quickly.

"When are you two going to stop falling down and slowing us up?" Alex said exasperatedly, as he heard the now familiar sound of someone falling over.

"Hey, it's not very easy for people who have only been here once," Nat muttered angrily.

"I'm just saying, it would be a lot quicker if I didn't have to pull you both out constantly," Alex remarked, receiving angry glares from both Shannon and Nat. Mercifully, within a few minutes they arrived in the forest.

"I fail to see why we couldn't just have flown over and left those two to find their own way out," Fiore grumbled as she saw the state they were in.

"If we did that, I'd have to show everyone that I came from this world originally, and that's something I'd rather not reveal yet," Alex replied, unsheathing his sword a few times to try and get the feel for a fast draw.

"I can't see why though, I mean there's nothing wrong with...oh...yea, I see now," Fiore began, before she guessed why.

Alex nodded. "Yea, being a black dragon, that's probably not going to help either of them sleep, particularly if they see me flying around," Alex said, looking back at Shannon and Nat, who still hadn't heard them talking. "Looks like if I want to be in my dragon form, it would be best when I am alone...or when we are on our own," he smiled at her. She tilted her head to one side slightly.

"Now why would us being on our own matter?" she said coolly, even though she obviously knew what he meant.

"Never mind...hey, any time this year might be nice," Alex suddenly yelled at Shannon and Nat.

"You try cleaning mud off clothes," Nat retorted.

"You think you can complain, try cleaning yourself with nothing but paws," Shannon angrily glared at Nat. Alex sighed and moved between them.

"Alright, that's enough, we need to get going now, end of," he told them, before walking off through the forest with Fiore. It wasn't long before Alex and Fiore heard Shannon and Nat arguing again, which meant they had caught up to them.

"Will they ever stop arguing?" Fiore asked.

"Nope, I don't think so, but at least it means we can be alone...sort of," Alex smiled.

"Too right...it feels nice to be with you after all those years apart," Fiore replied, briefly leaning her head next to Alex's left hand, who promptly stroked her head with it. She purred, but moved away as soon as Nat and Shannon got closer to them.

After a few minutes however, they finally found what they were looking for. Fiore was the first to spot the ape encampment, and she quickly nudged Alex, who then saw the camp. Since Nat was rather incompetent when it came to spotting things, Alex had to stop him and point in the direction of the camp, and even then he didn't see it.

"What? What am I looking for?" he asked.

"Look harder," Alex replied, noting that Shannon had seen the camp as well.

"What...what...what...ohhh," Nat realised as he looked back and forth between Alex's fingers and where he was pointing.

"Finally, but wait, before we do anything we need to get rid of them quietly, and that means being stealthy," Alex muttered, glaring at Nat, who simply shrugged.

"Screw stealth, I am a half-demon," he said, drawing his blades and running off to attack the apes head on, whilst giving off a loud battle cry.

"Wait, Nathaniel ,we have to do this...oh never mind, save some for me," Alex yelled after him, as he draw his Split blade Katana from its scabbard. Alex immediately felt something was different about his weapon, as if it had its own power...its own _Soul_. Alex shrugged this feeling off as he ran towards the apes Nat hadn't managed to kill, which there were a lot of. Shannon and Fiore looked at each other and shrugged before running after Alex.

When Alex caught up with Nat, the apes had already surrounded him, but he seemed to be holding his own even though he had been stabbed a fair few times he had missed timed hits.

Whilst Alex watched him, some different apes began to surround him. Even as the apes slowly began to walk towards him, Alex stayed where he was, looking slowly around at each ape in turn. When one of the apes lunged for him, he drew his Katana out and slashed at the ape so fast that it took two seconds for the apes to realise what he had done. His sword was very sharp, and easily cut through the ape's body, splitting it in half and spraying blood everywhere.

A bunch of apes tried to attack him from his front, left, right and rear. Alex instinctively knew what to do. He slashed at the one to his left first, then did a 270 degree horizontal slash all the way round to the one behind him. A second later, and all four apes were now in two pieces on the floor, causing even more blood to spew onto the ground. Alex twirled his blade once, before sheathing it.

About six more apes appeared, and saw the mess he had made. These apes were much larger than the first ones Alex had killed, but were smaller than commander apes. Alex decided to call them lieutenants. They cautiously walked towards him, again trying to surround him.

Alex suddenly felt a power build inside of him, and it felt like it was coming from his sword. Alex knew, as if almost from memory how to us this power. He flicked the hilt of his sword three times, and suddenly everything slowed down around him.

"_Now this could come in handy," _he thought, as he watched the apes walking very slowly towards him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw one of the apes swing a pole arm down towards his head. Alex leaned back slightly, avoiding the axe-head, and then quickly hit the ape in the face with the hilt of his sword. He then drew his sword and slashed at its head, decapitating it completely. To everyone else it looked like Alex was moving incredibly fast, when he just felt like everything else was moving slowly.

Alex then blocked another pole arm attack from his left. In one motion, he sheathed his sword and skilfully used his scabbard to trip the ape up and force it into the air. Whilst the ape was in mid-air, he drew his sword and sliced the ape's torso, cutting it in half. Despite how cool what he was doing must have looked, Alex could feel the sword draining his energy. He realised that the sword must draw its power from his own energy in order to power its own abilities, so he flicked the sword hilt once, which caused everything to return to normal speed and made him feel a lot better.

Not wasting time, Alex blocked an attack from an ape that had jumped into the air to attack him, and then he split his sword into two and used the second sword to impale the ape through the chest. Fiore and Shannon were watching Alex do all this with open mouths.

"How...where did he learn to do all of that from?" Shannon asked.

"I have no idea, but I think he's just making it up as he goes along," Fiore muttered. Alex had stood still to add dramatic effect, before he sheathed his sword again.

"_Alex," _an echoic female voice said.

Alex looked around, even though he knew that the voice that had spoken had done so directly into his head. _"Yes, who are you?" _Alex asked.

"_My name is 'K__**umori'**__, and I am the sword you now wield," _the voice answered, causing Alex to raise an eyebrow.

"_I see; care to explain why you haven't spoken to me before?" _Alex asked it.

"_Because I didn't know if you were the right person to wield my power," _the sword answered. Alex was about to reply, when he suddenly saw a bunch of Apes appear from one of the nearby tents_. _

"_Oh look, it seems more guests have arrived," _Alex smugly told the 'sword'. A number of apes were now bearing down on Fiore and Shannon, who were preparing to fight them.

"_Yes, I can see them; kill them and we can talk later," _it replied.

Not giving the apes a chance to harm either Fiore or Shannon, Alex drew his sword again, this time splitting it in two. When he did this, he felt an excitement pour through his body from where he held the swords, so he guessed the sword was eager for him to use it like this. He ran towards the apes, slashing each one with his dual swords, before delivering a final slash to the one nearest Fiore.

"_Impressive," _the sword complimented him. Fiore gaped at Alex, with wide eyes.

"Alex, you really have to tell me how you knew how to do all of that," she told him.

"I would, but there's a lot more things to deal with before then," Alex replied, nodding at the remaining Apes.

"Well I can't argue there," Fiore said, before running to attack the rest of the apes.

Whilst all this had been going on, Nat had been fighting a bunch near to a large tent. The majority of his fighting style was counter-killing, namely waiting until one of the apes moved to attack him and then striking at it quickly. His first few attempts had been mistimed, so he ended up getting a lot of hits to the head, chest and sides. He once got a spear in his side, but thankfully his demon heritage seemed to lessen the amount of damage it caused. He soon got the hang of fighting like he was and within a minute all the apes had been killed except the commander, who lumbered out with a club. His eyes widened as he saw the carnage.

"How dare you? You'll pay with your lives," it yelled, running towards Fiore with its club raised. It didn't get anywhere near her however, because Alex came out of nowhere and stood in its way, holding one of his swords to its throat.

"It's not very honourable to attack someone when they are unaware of you," Alex smugly told the ape, who now looked rather annoyed.

"Who are you to speak of honour? You attack my troops via ambush," the ape angrily replied, trying to hit Alex with its club. The club missed Alex, who had dodged it by side-steeping to the left. Not giving the ape a chance to react, Alex drew his sword and slashed at its neck, managing to decapitate it.

"To be honest, I'm more honourable than the lot of you," Alex muttered, flicking his swords at the ground to get any blood off them, before he placed them together and sheathed them. Nat was at this point staring at Alex with wide eyes.

"That...was...awesome," Nat exclaimed, clapping Alex on the back.

"Ha, you have no idea how long I have wanted to do that for," Alex replied.

"Alex...how did you move so fast, like you did a few minutes ago?" Fiore asked. Alex paused, looking down at his sword.

"_Shall I tell them?" _he asked the sword.

"_Sure; at least it'll stop them asking questions," _the sword replied. Alex sighed, before turning to look at the group.

"You see this sword - during the fight I suddenly felt a build up of power in it, and I somehow knew that flicking the sword handle three times would slow down time for everything apart from me," Alex answered.

"_It is more than just a memory; it is knowledge that I have given you so that you would use me to the best of your ability," _the sword told him.

"_Well, that's good; thank you, Kumori," _Alex replied kindly_. _

"_Your thanks are not needed, after all it is what I must do for my rightful owner; no one else can wield me," _K**umori** began, this time its voice sounded a lot calmer, and a lot sweeter to listen to. _"But I'm glad you appreciate what I have done," _Kumori continued, sounding happy_._

"_So then why can I control you?" _Alex asked 'her'.

"_Because I have chosen you to control me; you may come across similar weapons like me, but unlike with me, you'll have to first win control of them," _Kumori answered.

"Wow, that sword sounds powerful," Nat remarked.

"Yes it is, though sadly you can't control it," Alex replied.

"Why not?" Nat asked.

"Because it doesn't want you to wield its power; it has chosen me," Alex smugly announced.

"What do you mean 'it has chosen you'? How can a sword decide who should control it?" Shannon asked. This time it wasn't Alex who answered, but Fiore.

"That's because that isn't just any old sword, it's a special type of weapon which has great powers, but as such can only be controlled by one person," she told them, receiving surprised looks from both Shannon and Nat. Alex guessed that this had something to do with his past with her.

"How does that work? Surely once the wielder dies, then the sword...or weapon is useless?" Shannon muttered.

"Not necessarily; once a weapon is without a wielder, it will test every person who comes across it until someone is proved worthy of controlling it, and so the cycle will continue," Alex explained.

"Well that's not fair; I want a powerful sword like that," Nat muttered sadly.

"Oh stop moaning, there's an armoury over there, maybe you'll find something in there," Alex said, but Nat had already shot into the armoury to find something.

"Yea, let's see what we can find in the tent," Fiore muttered, walking into the tent, followed shortly by Alex and Shannon.

The inside of the tent was filled with a lot of furniture; in fact it had a little too much furniture.

"With the amount of stuff here, I think it's safe to say that this lot wanted to stay for a while," Alex said, walking past a table and some chairs. At the far end was a sort of throne, and in front of it was a large wooden desk.

"_Now this could be informative, maybe there will be something here of value," _Alex thought, as he looked at the desk.

On the top of the desk, was a large piece of paper, which had a lot of weird shapes and drawings on it. Alex realised that this was a map of sorts, but it didn't mean anything to him. He saw a few drawers in the desk, so he decided to inspect each in turn.

Whilst he was looking over the desk, Fiore was looking round at one of the tables. On the table she saw the image of what looked like a dragon with a sword through its back. When she looked again however, she realised that it was some sort of symbol for something, but she didn't know what.

Shannon meanwhile, had got bored and had gone to check on Nat. She found him exactly where he had gone to, the armoury. She saw, with a look of amusement, that he was trying out a variety of different weapons, though not finding any which suited his taste. To be fair, all the weapons that were in the armoury were short swords, broken pole arms or clubs, none of which he wanted.

"Blimey, how can anyone not lose to apes if they have crappie weapons like this!" he called from behind a weapon rack.

"Obviously you haven't found anything?" Shannon asked.

"No, not a thing here works with my style of fighting," Nat said, appearing from behind the weapon rack.

Back with Alex and Fiore, Alex had found a letter in one of the drawers. He had taken it out, and had begun reading it. The letter read:

_To Commander Drak, _

_A matter of urgency has arisen. You have no doubt heard about the sightings of a purple dragon from our swamp garrison. Well, as it happened, when our great leader, Cynder, went to investigate this she came across two interesting figures. The first one was a red dragoness called Fiore, who had just the other day escaped from one of our prisons. She will no doubt want to know the fate of her brother. I will tell you that her brother is still alive, if only so you can torment her. She, however, is not the most concerning problem, because the second figure looked like one of our own kind in appearance, only a lot thinner and balder. This one was the cause of our dear mistress's deep back wound. Apparently when this figure's eyes glow, he gains incredible abilities of agility and strength. Not only that, but soon after we lost contact with the temple garrison. We can only assume that those two were responsible for us losing contact. You may be wondering what this has to do with your legion. Your task is simple; you must recapture the temple, find those two and bring them back alive, if at all possible. The mistress, Cynder, would want them alive, but wouldn't mind hearing of their deaths. However, do not underestimate them; it is possible that they have joined up with the purple dragon, or the elusive fire guardian, Ignitus. If so, then the chances of you taking them by surprise will be very low, if not impossible. What happens though is of little importance; not any of them can stop our master being freed from his prison, and none of them will stop us when we wipe out what little resistance is left. Stay vigilant, Commander, because you'll need it if you are going to make it out alive._

_May the light of the Master guide you!_

_Signed Grand General Acerbus_

Alex put the letter down next to the map. According to the letter, this garrison had been sent to take back the temple, as well as both him and Fiore. What interested him was the talk of a 'Master', who seemed to be trapped somewhere and that apparently, once he was freed, the apes would take control of the rest of the world.

"Fiore," he called, causing her to look round at him, "there's something I've found that might just interest you," he continued, picking up the letter. She walked over to him. "This letter seems to say things of interest," he added, showing her the letter. She began to read it, her expression changing.

"My brother is alive!" she exclaimed after a short time.

"Yep, but keep reading, there's something interesting near to the bottom," Alex replied, smiling at her joyous expression. She spent the next minute reading the rest of the letter. When she had finished, she looked up at Alex with a confused expression on her face.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"I have no idea, but I guess we'll find out later," Alex replied, looking back at the map. He noticed a key in the bottom right hand corner, which said what each individual drawing meant. "Now this looks interesting, Fiore. I think it might just be possible to find where your brother is," he smiled, noting the sudden leap in her mood.

"Really...how?" she eagerly asked.

"Well, this map shows where all the garrisons are in the world," Alex began, tracing his finger along what looked like a drawing of a forest. "Now let's say that the temple is here," he said, pointing to a building in the swamp, "which would mean that we are about here," he moved his finger up to the nearby forest.

"What are you talking about? Where is my brother?" Fiore asked impatiently.

"Shh," Alex told her.

"But," she protested.

"Quiet! Now if we are there, then the nearest prison would be...there," Alex continued, moving his finger up to the edge of the forest, where a small building labelled 'prison' was.

"Prison...you don't mean?" Fiore began.

"Yep, we are going 'prison' raiding," Alex exclaimed, lifting the map off the desk.

"But what about Ignitus? Surely we should report back to him?" she queried. Alex paused and looked at her.

"Do you really think he doesn't already know this? Besides, don't you want to rescue your brother?" Alex said, suddenly sounding serious.

Fiore thought for a moment. On the one hand she wanted to rescue him, but at the same time she thought that she should consult Ignitus. Alex knelt down and placed his hand on her head, snapping her out of her train of thought.

"Fiore, right now I think the best thing to do is to go looking for your brother. I know you miss him, so why should you have to miss him for longer than is needed?" he asked her, in a soft and sweet tone. She knew what she wanted now.

"Alright, we'll go," she decided.

"Alright then, I wonder if Nathaniel has found anything as interesting as this?" Alex replied, standing up and walking out of the tent, followed by Fiore, who suddenly felt a lot happier.

As they exited the tent, it was plain that Nat hadn't found anything of any interest at all. In fact he appeared to have gone back to waving his swords around, practising how to fight with them.

"You can stop waving the sword round now, Nathaniel," Alex remarked as he walked up to him.

"So did you find anything interesting?" Nat asked.

"Actually, yes, I found a map of this world, and this letter," Alex said, showing him the map and the letter.

"A letter, let me read it," Nat said, reaching to take hold of the letter, only to find Alex putting it in a small bag he had picked up from the tent.

"Sorry, but it contains information about me and Fiore that I'd rather not share with you or anyone for that matter," Alex smugly replied, turning on the spot and walking so that he was now stood in the centre of the camp. "But basically the letter said that this garrison here was charged with retaking the temple, and capturing me, Fiore and Spyro," Alex continued, leaning against a tree.

"Right; that was really worth keeping from me, wasn't it," Nat retorted.

"That wasn't the only thing in the letter; you'll remember two days ago we came across the subject of Fiore having a brother? Well, it seems that he's being kept in a prison somewhere nearby," Alex continued.

"Wait, rewind a sec, who's this brother of yours, Fiore?" Shannon asked, walking over from one of the other tents. Fiore looked uncomfortable at the question.

"I'd rather not talk about it," she muttered.

"So are we going to find him?" Nat asked.

"Yep, I mean what better thing do we have to do that involves rescuing people and lessoning the number of enemies we have?" Alex joked.

"Fair point, so where are we off first?" Nat asked. Alex unfurled the map.

"Well if we say that we are here, then that means the nearest one to us is about half a mile to the north east," Alex answered.

"Great, more walking," Nat moaned.

"Well then let's go, I know the way...vaguely," Alex replied, walking off into the forest, shortly followed by everyone else.

"You really instil me with confidence," Shannon remarked.

"Oh come on, when have I ever been wrong when it comes to map reading?" Alex grinned, making Shannon roll her eyes.

They continued to walk through the forest. Fiore made sure as to walk right next to Alex, whilst Nat eyed his sword longingly. They stopped to catch some food after a few hours. This had quickly resulted in Nat and Shannon arguing about how to catch a deer. Alex had finally shut them up when he told Nat to make a fire whilst he and Fiore went about catching some food. Nat kept grumbling to himself whilst they walked off into the forest. After they had gone a certain distance, Alex stopped.

"It'll be easier to catch our food if I'm in my dragon form," Alex said, smiling at Fiore's joyous expression. Alex thought about his dragon form, and after a second, he was a dragon. "Alright then, let's see what we can find," he grinned, receiving a smile from Fiore.

As Alex walked after a trail of deer prints, Fiore watched him go. There was something about him when he was in that form that made her feel so happy. She let out a quiet sigh before following him. What neither of them had noticed was that his sword had disappeared from his side when he transformed into a dragon.

**Ohh, so the sword is gone, I wonder where to...actually I don't since I already know. I based Alex's fighting style like Vergil's off Devil may cry 3. Anyway please read and review and until next time, bye...**


	9. A little too close for comfort

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. This one has a lot of interesting things happening in it...I think!...Well anyway on with the story...**

**Chapter 8: A little **_**too**_** close for comfort**

Alex walked through the undergrowth of the forest, looking around for any sort of animal that could be eaten. In his present from, he was low down enough to not be visible over some of the plants. He could tell that Fiore was looking at him more than she was looking for food. Alex smiled at this, because it felt nice to have someone interested in you. Truth be told, Alex actually preferred to be in his dragon form, because everything around him felt a lot more natural. He truly felt as if he belonged to this world, unlike in his previous life on earth when he had felt so out of place. He shook these thoughts from his mind as he noticed a deer drinking from a nearby river. He stopped, and looked back at Fiore, who had been keeping step with him.

"So how do you think that would do," he asked her, nodding towards the deer, which had not noticed them.

Fiore looked at the deer, and then back at Alex. Her eyes suddenly had an evil glint in them which Alex didn't like the look of. She nevertheless nodded, so Alex began to creep up on the deer. Alex had somehow switched into instinct mode, because he suddenly felt like he had no control over his body as he slowly crept up on the deer. Whilst Alex was doing this, Fiore was watching him with a smile on her face.

"_I wonder how he'll take catching a deer," _she wondered.

It took all but a few seconds before Alex suddenly sprang at the deer. Not giving it a chance to react, he sunk his teeth into its neck, and violently shook it hard, somehow managing to snap its neck and instantly kill it.

"Sorry mate, but this is just business...nothing personal," Alex joked as he dropped the now limp deer onto the ground.

"Not bad, you did that like a pro, are you sure you haven't done this before?" Fiore asked, walking over next to him.

"Nope, I just listened to my instincts, at least I think that was what was telling me how to do what I just did," Alex smugly replied. Fiore chuckled at this, before she picked the deer up and tossed it up on Alex's back.

"Well, let's go back and see how Nathaniel's doing with that fire; since the whole forest isn't on fire I have to assume it isn't working," Alex continued, smiling at his joke.

"Blimey, is he that bad?" Fiore asked.

"Well, sort of," Alex replied, walking off back towards the camp. Fiore however, remained where she was stood, watching Alex as he walked.

"You know we don't have to go back immediately, why not stay here for a while?" Fiore said softly. Alex turned back to look at her, and saw a trace of longing in her eyes.

"Really...and what would we do?" Alex asked her.

"Um, I don't know...we could sit next to the river if you want," Fiore asked hopefully. Alex didn't register that Fiore was making an advance on him, but he accepted nonetheless.

"Sure, I guess we could do that, but only for two minutes," Alex warned her.

"Two minutes is all I need," Fiore muttered quietly, before she walked over to the riverside and sat down, looking back at Alex expectantly. He sighed and placed the deer corpse down near the river, before he went and sat down next to Fiore.

Fiore smiled when he did this, and looked out over the river. At this point it was night time, and the starlight seemed to reflect off the water making everything seem a lot brighter. It reminded her of a time she had been to Twilight Falls, which was a sight to behold at night...hence the name.

"Don't you think it's beautiful?" Fiore asked Alex, who didn't seem too interested in the sight on the river.

Alex looked into the river, and saw his reflection. What surprised him was how the starlight seemed to have made his reflection look a lot more appealing to the eyes. He looked over at Fiore, and was a little taken aback by the sheer beauty that she suddenly seemed to have.

"Yea...I guess it is," Alex replied slowly, turning to look back over the river as he blushed.

"_Fiore looked so beautiful then...but why am I feeling like this?" _he asked himself.

Fiore had noticed his expression when he had looked at her; the expression of shock/embarrassment which she had seen made her guess that he liked the look of her. She smiled and shuffled closer to him. This movement made Alex feel very uncomfortable, and slightly nervous.

"It's a nice moon tonight," Alex smiled slightly, attempting to make conversation.

"Yea, its reflective light makes almost everything look nice," Fiore sighed, turning her head to look at him, "and it makes other things look beautiful," she added in a soft , yet slightly seductive, tone.

Alex had at this point worked out what Fiore had been planning, or at least he thought he had. He wanted to move away, but strangely he instead moved closer to her and placed his wing around her.

"_What am I doing? This isn't the time or the place to fall for someone, Alex," _Alex thought angrily, until he looked into Fiore's eyes. When he did so, all other thoughts were banished from his mind as he gazed into them. It was all like before, except this time Alex wasn't the one who moved first. Fiore began to move her head closer to his own, and he suddenly found him doing the same thing.

Alex was still having second thoughts, and his rational mind seemed to be winning as he stopped moving towards her. Fiore however had only one thing on her mind, and that was Alex. In her excitement, she accidently released her scent.

Alex, who at this point was about to back away from her, caught a whiff of her scent. Alex had never smelt anything so nice in his entire life and it drove all rational thoughts out of his mind. At this point, their heads were only a few centimetres apart, and as they drew closer to each other, they could feel excitement growing inside them. They closed their eyes as they closed the gap between themselves, and were mere millimetres away from kissing.

Suddenly they heard a rustling of leaves, which broke them both out of the moment. Alex immediately leapt up and transformed back into his human form. From out of a bush, came Shannon who looked rather ignorant of the moment she had just interrupted.

"Ah, there you two are; I was wondering when you'd turn up," she told them, noticing the corpse of the deer. "Is that our food?" she asked, as Alex walked over and picked it up.

"Yep, you would not believe how hard it is to find any deer here," Alex hastily remarked, trying to forget about what had _almost_ happened. Shannon figured that something had happened recently, but she was a little ungrudging to realise just what.

"So what have you two been doing?" she asked. Alex was about to answer, when a positively livid Fiore rounded on her.

"NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS," she snarled, glaring at her, causing Shannon to recoil slightly.

"Jesus, calm down it was only a question," Shannon replied, sounding shocked.

"YEA, WELL I'M NOT SAYING," Fiore continued just as angrily as before, then storming off back to where they had camped.

"What's with her/" Shannon asked Alex, who was looking into the trees, away from where Fiore had gone.

"I-I don't know," Alex replied softly, not even turning to look at Shannon.

In truth Alex had a pretty good idea why she was like that, because in truth he was pretty furious as well. While he had not wanted to continue with what had been happening, he felt a great amount of disappointment at being interrupted.

"_I was so close, if she had just waited a few more seconds, then maybe...wait no, I have to stop thinking like this, I can't get tied down to anyone," _he angrily thought.

"Anyway we should get going," Shannon said suddenly, dragging Alex out of his train of thought.

He shook his head before he began walking back the way Fiore had just gone. As he walked through the forest, his thoughts kept returning to the image of how she looked next to the river, and the more he tried to shut the image out, the more he thought about it. It was almost as if is dragon side was forcing him to make a decision about her.

Mercifully, he arrived in the camp to see her and Nat trying to light the still unlit fire. Alex sighed and dropped the deer onto the ground near the fire, startling them both.

"Here's dinner, now about that fire," Alex muttered, walking away from them and leaning on a tree.

Nat's attempts at making a fire seemed to be failing, so Fiore rolled her eyes and lit it with her own fire element.

"Why couldn't you have done that earlier?" Nat asked, sounding annoyed. Obviously he hadn't noticed that she was in a very bad mood.

She glared at him, but didn't say anything as she walked over to where Alex was. Alex wasn't too happy with her next to him; in fact he would much rather that she wasn't near him, because at this point in time, he could barely think straight around her.

"Well, now that the fire's started, time for a feast," he said in a bored/ monotonic voice.

"Your enthusiasm is frightening," Nat remarked, as he tore off two legs of the deer and roasted them over the fire. Alex however simply did like Fiore, and dug straight into it. Nat was a little startled by this. "You know it tastes better if you cook it first," he remarked.

"Nathaniel, I'm half-dragon; dragons eat meat like this in the wild. I'll eat it how I want," Alex replied, before he quickly finished the deer leg in only a few bites. Nat looked rather disgusted as he watched Alex devour the meat.

"You know, you're kind of putting me off my appetite," he said sarcastically, finishing his leg, and giving the other one to Shannon. After a few minutes, they had all finished eating.

"Well, I 'm calling it a day; we'll need a good night's sleep if we are going to raid a prison," Alex sighed, as he leaned his head back on his hands. He was now lying down away from Fiore, who was a little confused at how he didn't want to be near her.

"Good plan, well night all," Nat said, as he rested against a nearby tree, whilst Shannon lay down next to the now smouldering fire.

Fiore was as of yet undecided as to where she was going to sleep. She was torn between sleeping next to Alex, and giving him space by sleeping on her own. She decided to just sleep where she was, instead of taking her chances with Alex, who seemed to be in a foul mood.

"You can sleep next to me if you want Fiore," Alex said, not even looking at her.

Fiore got back up and walked over to him, lying down next to him. Like the other time two days ago, she lay with her head next to his, looking into his eyes. They both felt a lot calmer, but soon looked away from each other's eyes.

It took only a few moments before Alex fell asleep.

It was only a few seconds before he suddenly turned into his dragon form.

Fiore sighed as she watched him sleep, watching his chest rise and fall as he slept. She placed her wing over him, and he smiled when he felt the wing membrane over him. She laid her head near Alex's own head, and after a few seconds, was asleep.

Alex meanwhile was being treated to another flashback of his past. This vision showed him and Fiore on the top ledge of the temple; apparently they had both been learning how to fly.

"_Come on, Alex, it's easy...look all you have to do is flap your wings like I do and you'll be airborne very quickly," Fiore told him, whilst hovering in the air. _

"_It's not very easy when you haven't been taught for more days like you have," Alex grumbled, as he tried to get airborne, but failed. Both of them looked and sounded older than they were in the first vision, so Alex guessed that this was one year on. _

_Fiore sighed, "Look, try flapping them at a slow and steady pace, then slowly build up momentum," she instructed. Alex did as she had told him, and after a few minutes of trying, he eventually succeeded. _The present day Alex suddenly felt as though he knew how to fly.

"So it seems these memories not only show me about the past, but also about how to do things I learnt before," he smiled.

"_Wow, this is so cool," the past Alex exclaimed, as he flew around in a few different circles._

"_Yea I know and you seem to have already picked up on how to move around...so how about we have a race?" Fiore challenged, smiling at him. _

"_Ok, where to?" Alex asked her._

"_Hmm, how about from here to that hill, then back again?" Fiore answered. _

"_Alright, just don't cheat, ok?" Alex told her, as she rolled her eyes. _The present day Alex could only guess what was going to happen.

_Both Fiore and Alex set off at the same time. Both of them were surprisingly fast, but Fiore had more experience at flying than Alex did, so she quickly took the lead. This didn't really change much until they were flying back to the temple, by which time Alex had worked out how to gain speed quickly. He flew above Fiore and glided down, allowing the air currents to do the rest. He soon over took Fiore, but then immediately ran into a problem...how was he going to land? _

"_Err, Fiore...how do I land?" he called back. She didn't have time to answer as he crashed into the ground. Fiore couldn't help but laugh at Alex, who was sprawled on the ground in a heap_

_."FIORE, stop laughing," a disgruntled Alex yelled at her. Fiore was in a fit of giggles at this point, and was rolling around on the ground._

"_That...was...so...funny," she struggled to say through her giggles. Alex leaped to his feet and ran full pelt at her. She didn't have time to react before he had tackled her to the ground. "Hey, what was that for," she glared up at him, whilst he stood over her. _

"_It's not funny now, is it?" he replied, grinning at her. They both stayed like that for a few seconds, before they both burst out laughing. _

"_That was priceless, the way you looked on the ground, hilarious," Fiore giggled. _

"_Yea, but in all seriousness, you have to tell me how to land," Alex said, having calmed down slightly. _

"_Well, we should get back inside; the guardians won't want us out here at night," Fiore said, standing up and walking back into the temple. Alex followed her, smiling all the while. _The present day Alex heard his past self's thoughts.

"_This life I lead with her is so fun, I wish it never changes," he thought, _and the present day Alex suddenly smiled at this.

"I was so naive then, typical," he said, before the image dissolved into blackness.

Alex awoke to find himself once again in his dragon form. _"This is going to happen every time I have these dreams, isn't it?" he thought to himself. _He suddenly realised that Fiore, who had last night been lying with her head near his, had placed her wing over him. _"How thoughtful of you, Fiore," _he smiled, shifting so that he was lying on his front. He stared at her, admiring how the light seemed to reflect off her scales, making them almost gleam. He shuffled closer to her, though only slightly so that he wouldn't wake her.

Despite his best efforts, Fiore still woke up, and turned her head to look at him. She was a little flustered by the dream she had had involving him, but she still smiled when she saw he was in his dragon form, and used her wing to pull him closer to her, which he accepted happily. When Alex let out a purring noise when he brushed against Fiore's scales, he suddenly realised that he liked Fiore...A LOT.

"_So much for not falling for her," _he thought as he looked into her eyes.

They lay looking into each other's eyes, admiring the beauty they saw in the other's eyes. They both realised that they weren't going to move from this position anytime soon. Alex was getting quite nervous, fearing that what had happened at the river might just happen here as well. He tried to think of something...anything that could be used as a way of getting out of this situation.

Mercifully, they heard someone stirring nearby, which Alex took as his cue to change back into human form. Fiore reluctantly retracted her wing from around him, glaring at Nat, who had been the one to interrupt them both. Alex stood up and leaned on the tree near him, looking as if he had been standing there for ages.

"_I think that I should keep up the appearance that I'm not really from her past; it wouldn't be good for us after all," _he thought, slipping into his '_I like people but they don't like me the same way'_ mood which he had employed throughout his time on earth.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head," he called to Nat.

"Blimey, what time is it?" Nat remarked, looking around.

"I don't know, but it's morning so get up, we have to get moving soon," Alex replied calmly, placing his hand on the handle of Kumori.

"Why the rush? We should at least have time for some sort of breakfast," Nat replied.

"If you can find some food, you're welcome to bring it back for the rest of us; me though...I'm not hungry," Alex told him, looking up at the tree he was stood next to.

"_Alex, I can tell that something is bothering you, something to do with Fiore," _his sword, Kumori said telepathically to him. Alex closed his eyes and smiled.

"_Am I really that obvious?" _he asked her. He had decided that Kumori was a female, since its voice was that of a female.

"_Yes you are; you know I can't see why you feel so against the idea of liking her, after all both of you are dragons," _she replied.

"_Yea well, it's all too sudden and besides, knowing my luck, she doesn't feel the same way," _Alex thought sadly.

"_Oh come on, I can tell by the way she looks at you that she is thinking the same thing about you," _Kumori muttered, sounding slightly annoyed.

"_Are you sure?" _

"_Yes, why wouldn't I be? But in any case, I'll let you find out for yourself." _

Alex opened his eyes and looked at Fiore. _"No, she can't love me," _Alex decided.

"_You're impossible... I might as well teach you how to use your element and myself together," _Kumori sighed. Alex looked away from Fiore, and saw that Shannon was finally awake.

"Well, you lot can find some food, whilst I try out something Kumori..." he began, unsheathing her as he spoke, "...wants to teach me."

Everyone looked a little confused, but still let him practice. He walked away from the camp into the forest.

"I think this should be a good enough distance away," he said after a minute of walking.

"_Alright, firstly you need to know your elemental power," _Komori began.

"So what is my element then?" he asked her.

"_Considering that your dragon form is a black dragon, I'd have thought it was obvious," _she replied, adding "Shadow," when he didn't say anything.

"Cool, so how does this work with you?"

"_There are a number of ways you can use your element with me," Kumori _began, as Alex got into a prepared stance,_ "to start with, if you make a slash with me, then you can follow up by executing a fast shadow slash," _she explained_. _

"That sounds good; now all I have to do is work out how to imbue you with it," Alex replied.

"_Well, during one time you turned into your dragon form I took the trouble to harness the excess power which was radiating from a...area of your body," _Kumori replied, sounding slightly embarrassed. Alex could guess what part of his body she was referring to.

"So you somehow gained the power from the shadow cloud on my tail," he muttered.

"_Yea that sums it up, and that was a little difficult to pull off I can tell you," _she replied_. _

"Why was that?"

"_Haven't you noticed that in your dragon form I'm not on you at all?" _she asked him.

"Nope, explain."

"_Well, instead I used the opportunity to take refuge...in your mind," _she announced, sounding even more embarrassed. Alex took a moment to realise what she had said.

"You aren't the average sword are you, because I didn't think solid metal could disappear into my mind," he joked.

"_That's because I wasn't always a sword, I was once a living being, but I was killed and sealed in this sword," _she replied sadly_. _

"Oh, sorry I didn't...," he began.

"_Its fine, Alex, you wouldn't have known, but I'd much rather get on with training you first," _she cut in before he could finish.

"So does that mean that I just swing you around, and then you'll do the rest?" he asked her.

"_In a matter of speaking yes; I don't really like the idea of being 'swung' around," _she told him.

Alex sighed, and slashed the sword horizontally to the left, before suddenly feeling the power build in the sword. He followed up the slash with another horizontal slash to the right, only this time the sword gained a streak of black to its blade as it travelled through the air. As well as the colour effect, the slash was a lot faster, and had a much larger range on it. Alex realised this when he realised that he had cut right through a tree in front of him. He side stepped out of the way in order to avoid the falling tree.

"That was cool, though you could have told me what would have happened," Alex remarked, grinning as he examined the tree he had cut down.

"_Sorry, I'm not used to this either, all I know is what you can do with me, not what it looks like," _Kumori replied defensively.

"Anything else?" Alex asked.

"_For now there is one other thing; if you split me into two sword..." _she said, waiting for him to do he did she continued. _"...Then you can imbue certain slashes and thrusts with your element, increasing the range and power of each attack; of course the more you do at once, the more it will drain your power," _she warned him.

"So that means that if I do too many shadow imbued attacks, then I won't be able to do any more for a while," he guessed.

"_That's right, though I'd refrain from doing more than two without a minute's break, so as you're not tiring yourself," _she replied.

"I'll bear that in mind; anything else?" he asked.

"_Nope, that's all for now, everything else you'll probably pick up randomly, or else by experimenting with what you know." _

"Figures; well time to rejoin them then," Alex said, walking back to the camp as he sheathed Kumori. When he got back to the camp, he found everyone waiting for him. "Well that was fun," he muttered.

"It must have been, we heard the tree falling over," Fiore remarked.

"Yea well, Kumori didn't really judge distance very well; so are we all ready to go," he asked. They all nodded, so Alex took out the map from his bag. "Now according to this, we just have to get out of this forest, and we should be at the prison," he announced, walking off through the forest in the direction of the prison, closely followed by Fiore and then soon by everyone else.

It was around an hour before they were out of the forest. They looked around to see that most of the land in front of them was a dull brown colour, as opposed to the grass that was in the forest. In front of them, down a long path, stood a mountain, and in front of that stood what they guessed was the prison.

"Well, that looks like a prison to me," Nat remarked.

The prison seemed to rise up to about half the height of the mountain. Everywhere around them seemed to be just forest.

"Indeed, now we just have to get close enough to it," Alex added, placing the map back inside his bag as he walked down the path.

"This is where the fun begins," Nat exclaimed eagerly, as he ran after Alex, followed by Fiore and Shannon, who had both rolled their eyes after seeing him like that.

"Boys will be boys, I guess," Shannon muttered.

**Well that was a fun little chapter. Alex and Fiore got close didn't they, but I'm not rushing the development, sorry if your all disappointed. Anyway please read and review this chapter and until next time, bye...**


	10. Prison Raider and a Fight

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. This one has a lot happening in it, there is fights, stealth and a lot of walking around. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 9: Prison Raider and a Fight**

Alex led the way down the path until they drew near the walls of the prison. There was a handy set of large rocks which Alex ducked behind. He motioned for everyone to come over to him, which they did. When they were all behind the rocks he turned to them.

"Right, I've made us stand here so that we can plan out how we are going to get into the prison," he told them.

"Why do we need a plan? Surely we could just bust through the front door and kill anything that we come across," Nat suggested. Alex sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I somehow don't think it would do the occupants of the prison much good if we were to suddenly break through the front door...don't you think they might hold the prisoners to ransom?" Alex explained to him.

"Not if we are fast enough," Nat countered.

"I doubt you'd be able to move that fast...no what we need to do is employ some stealth," Alex said, his hand moving onto the handle of Kumori.

"But being stealthy is boring, it takes all the fun out of fighting," Nat muttered.

"Maybe that's because you can't be stealthy at all," Shannon joked, receiving a glare from Nat.

"Hey that's not true..." he began.

"No it actually is true; I mean come on, all you've done since we met up is run around 't_rying'_ to behead anything that's is killable," Alex grinned.

"So far there hasn't been much planning going on, so can we please get on with it," Fiore finally muttered. Shannon looked at her with a questing look.

"Why are you so keen to get into the prison," she asked.

"Her brother," Alex replied simply. Shannon instantly realised what he meant.

"Oh...I see," she muttered.

"Anyway if we want to get in there, I think it would be easier to scale those walls, since they're not too high up; after that we get to a vantage point and assassinate the guards," Alex said, looking up at the said walls, which were barely higher than the rocks they stood next to.

"Assassinate, that's where I come in," Nat eagerly said, grinning at them.

"Err...how are we going to get up there?" Shannon asked. Alex chuckled.

"I didn't say we would all go up those walls; I was meaning some of us would go," Alex explained.

"So who's going up then?" Fiore asked.

"Well, since Nat has most of the ranged weapons, I thought he'd be a good start, and I'd go with him just to make sure he doesn't screw up," he continued, smiling at Nat, who was now glaring at him.

"So what are we going to do, sit and wait whilst you two have all the fun?" Shannon muttered.

"Yea, pretty much," Nat smiled, whilst Shannon pouted.

Alex ignored both of them and walked up to the wall. He examined it and saw a number of holes in it that would be great for putting hands or feet in when climbing. Not wanting to waste time climbing though, Alex leaped into the air and grabbed one of the holes. He then used that hole as a leverage to leap up to the next one up, and so on until he got to the top of the wall.

When he reached the top, he refrained from climbing up further. The reason why he did this was because a guard was patrolling the wall. Alex watched the pattern the guard moved in, until the guard was standing over him. Not giving the guard a chance to move, Alex leaped up, grabbed the guard by the face, and pulled him off the wall. He heard the sickening sound of its neck breaking when it hit the ground, but didn't pause to see what was going on near where it had landed.

He climbed onto the wall, and saw that Nat had finally decide to climb up the wall. He walked over to him, and helped pull him up.

"Right, now remember be stealthy and follow my lead," Alex told him.

"Why should you lead?" Nat asked.

"Because I can be stealthy, unlike you, let's go," he replied, before running off towards one of the towers.

When they reached the entrance to the tower, Alex flattened himself against the side, shortly followed by Nat who did the same. A few seconds later two other ape guards walked past them. Both of them seemed to be talking about something to do with how Cynder punishes those who fail her. Alex had to grab Nat to stop him from killing both of them in his eagerness for a battle.

"Don't break cover, we have to find away to let Fiore and Shannon in, "Alex whispered to Nat.

"So how about we open the gate... that would let them in?" Nat suggested. Alex shook his head.

"It would be too obvious; if they knew someone was breaking in then they'd move the prisoners...or worse they'd kill them," Alex muttered, his eyes scanning for any way in. He spotted some sort of crane/ lift at the edge of the wall; unfortunately it was on the inside of the prison. _"That would be very helpful in escaping should we need it," _Alex thought. He decided that it would be easier if they both split up and each took down a set of guards around the perimeter. "Alright, Nathaniel, the easiest way to do this would be to kill any and all guards in the courtyard, on the walls and in the towers," Alex told him.

"Finally you'll let me do it my way," Nat exclaimed happily, running off towards the two guards on the wall.

"Just don't let any of them live," Alex whispered to him as he ran off.

He turned his attention to the courtyard. As far as he could see, there were only two buildings in it, the main prison and what looked like a bar. Alex ran across the wall until he saw a guard standing below him on the ground. He unsheathed his sword and leaped into the air. Whilst in mid air he pointed the tip of his blade downwards. He landed on top of the guard and stabbed the sword into his neck, killing him instantly. He withdrew the sword from the ape's neck, slashed it once to clean the blood off and then sheathed it.

He looked around and saw two apes talking to each other about something. Quietly, Alex made his way over to them, and hid behind the building they were stood next to, trying to hear what they were talking about.

"Come on, pay up; you lost ten games of poker to me and I want you to pay up," one of them said, its voice sounding deep and menacing.

"I don't carry that much money around with me; I'll pay it tomorrow, when we all get our earnings," the other one replied. Its voice wasn't as deep, but was still menacing.

"The chances of any of us getting paid tomorrow are slim to none; you saw the look on Cynder's face when she came back after her mission. If I hadn't told her that the crystal was fully charged at Dante's freezer, she would have probably bitten my head off," the first one muttered.

"How can you speak about her so calmly? When I see her, I can't look into her eyes, let alone talk about her," the second one said, sounding a little surprised.

"Well it's all down to knowing how her mind works; I mean the mind of that one, while experienced in battles, is still young like the age she _should _be," the first one continued, placing emphasis on 'should'. Alex was now very interested in what they were talking about.

"The age she should be, what are you talking about?" the second one asked, sounding just as interested as Alex was. The first one chuckled.

"Don't tell me; you haven't heard about her history, have you?" it asked.

"No I haven't. I haven't been around here for very long, the second muttered.

"Well it's a rather interesting tale and one that could take some time," the first began.

"Well, I've got time; besides my shift doesn't start for another hour," the second added.

"Ok... The story goes something like this: about twelve years ago our forces, lead by our great leader Gaul, were sent on a mission by the Dark Master to raid the dragon temple," the first explained. "Now the purpose of this was to stop the birth of the purple dragon who was going to be born that year. Now here's the interesting part - as well as destroying all the eggs, we had to take one of them back to him, preferably the purple dragon."

"So what happened? Did they succeed?" the second one asked.

"In a way they did; unfortunately one of the guardians had taken the purple dragon away from us, so we had to pick one of the other eggs and Cynder happened to be the lucky one," the first answered, evenly grinning at the irony of such a statement.

"So then they took her back and corrupted her, didn't they?" the second one said. Alex was both shocked and surprised by this news.

"_Ignitus didn't mention this, what else could he be hiding," _Alex wondered.

"Yea, but I hear that she had to go through a lot of torture before they corrupted her fully," the first one added.

"Oh man, that's terrible; why would they do that?" the second one asked.

"I'm not sure, but I have heard that they had previously tried to corrupt a white dragon, which ended up with the said dragon going crazy and destroying half the building," the first one muttered.

"So they were being careful, weren't they?" the second one said, suddenly sounding slightly sad.

"Yea, that's why she doesn't scare me, because I feel sorry for her," the first ape replied.

"_Wow, who knew that apes could feel sorry for things, particularly dragons?" _Alex thought as he listened further to the conversation.

"Well I think we've talked enough. I'd head along to your post; I'm going to keep guarding this postern gate here," the first Ape said.

Alex heard the sound of walking, so he immediately moved away from where he was. He managed to hide around the corner from the ape, but chose to climb onto a ledge like part of the nearby building. From his vantage point, he saw the ape walk past the wall, where he saw Nat standing. Alex smiled.

"Poor fool, good thing I found out something from them," he muttered as he watched Nat aerial assassinate the ape, "At least he had a quick death, _Requiescat in pace_ (rest in peace)," Alex muttered, _"I've always wanted to say that," _he thought.

"_Then why haven't you before now? There have been plenty of opportunities," _Kumori said, causing Alex to smile.

"_Probably because I haven't seen the need, but I should get back to finding a way out from the inside," _Alex replied.

"_The other ape said something about a gate; maybe that could let them in," _Kumori told him.

"A good plan; time for a little interrogation," Alex muttered.

He jumped down in front of the ape, startling it.

"Who are you?" it asked.

"That's not something I can tell you. Where are the prisoners being held?" Alex asked it.

"Oh no, I'm not telling you, intruder...we have an intu..." the ape began, but was silenced by Alex unsheathing Kumori, and slashing twice with her, before he began to slowly sheath her.

"Never mind, that entrance is all I need," Alex remarked. Alex then fully sheathed Kumori, emitting a clicking sound when he did so and simultaneously causing the ape to fall over...dead.

Alex smiled, walked over to the wall and placed his hand on it. He could tell that there was a hidden doorway there, so he wasn't surprised when it revealed an exit when he pushed it slightly.

"Now to tell Nathaniel about this...ah here he comes now," Alex muttered, as he saw Nat running over to him, his clothes covered in blood. "In case you're wondering, I've found the hidden way out of this prison," he told Nat.

"Cool, and I had a lot of fun killing random apes; one of them had this map of the main building," Nat proudly exclaimed.

"Good, well then let's get Fiore and Shannon," Alex replied, walking out through the now open doorway. Nat followed him, and had enough sense to stuff the corpse in the small area they walked through inside the wall.

They both arrived back at the rocks to find Fiore and Shannon talking about something. They looked up when they heard Alex and Nat approaching.

"Alright we've cleared out the guards and have a detailed knowledge of the main prison building," Alex announced to them.

"Great, so can we finally come along?" Fiore asked.

"Of course, that's why we came back; follow us," Alex replied, before walking back to the postern gate. Within a minute all of them were in the prison again. "Well then, time to see what we can find inside," Alex remarked, walking into the main building.

The interior of the prison was very dark and gloomy and the walls looked gothic. The place was mostly lit by torches and it didn't help that it was about night time at this point.

"This can't be good; I can barely see anything here," Nat complained.

"Really, I can see perfectly well," Alex remarked smugly. This was actually very true, because Alex was able to see everything almost as clearly as if it were in the day. Alex guessed this was something to do with his dragon side.

"Gee I wonder why; maybe because your eyes have started glowing red like beacons," Nat angrily muttered. Alex shook his head and walked into the centre of the room.

"So where are we going to, Nathaniel?" Alex asked him.

"Well, if we want to get to the prison block, we have to go up to the second floor, which is also the top floor I might add...after that we take a number of different corridors and we should end up in a large area where all the prisoners are being held," Nat told them, looking at the map.

"Is there a quicker way round?" Fiore asked.

"No. Well, there does seem to be some sort of door to the second floor, which has a lock on the first floor...that sounds rather complicated," he added.

"If we get lost, I'll take over the map reading," Alex replied.

"We won't get lost; we'll simply take a short detour from our goals," Nat joked, receiving a glare from Alex.

Following Nat through the left corridor, they came across a guard who was standing by a door. Nat was rather eager to kill him, but Alex beat him to it when he used his shadow slash on the guard, cutting it clean in half.

"Why do you get the powerful weapons?" Nat moaned.

"Because I know what is a good weapon...that and Kumori chose me to control her," Alex replied, smiling down at his sword.

"Any way, let's see what's behind door number one," Nat remarked, opening the door.

All he found was an empty cell, so he closed the door, and they moved on. They continued doing this through the corridor, and Alex was letting Nat kill any guards they came across, though a few times he would personally kill them, particularly if there were two or more of them.

"I'm not sure how many guards there will be left here, if you two keep this up," Shannon remarked, as Alex decapitated two guards at once.

"It doesn't really make much of a difference at all, since we would have to fight this lot off anyway... when we rescue her brother, that is," Alex replied, nodding at Fiore whilst he sheathed Kumori.

All the doors they had checked up until then had been empty, but when they opened this door, they found that it contained some sort of mechanism.

"Now I'm no genius, but I'd have to say this is what controls the door to the stairs," Alex said, walking up to examine it. There wasn't really anything that he could obviously see to press or pull to make it work. "Any ideas of how to work this thing?" he asked the group, turning back to look at them. They all shook their heads.

"Looks like we are going to have to find some instructions for this thing," Shannon remarked, looking at the mechanism.

"Maybe this paper here tells you how to operate it," Fiore said suddenly, holding up a piece of paper she had found.

Alex asked her for the paper, which she gladly handed over. Alex then read the instructions and activated the mechanism. It was a rather quiet unlocking of the door, so when they arrived at the stairs, they didn't find any resistance at all.

"Alright, now to find this dragon," Nat said, walking up to a door on the right at the top of the stairs. "Sweet," he exclaimed, running into the room excitedly.

"Why do I think he's found the armoury?" Alex remarked, following him into the room.

Nat had indeed found the armoury and was now looking at a bunch of different weapons, his eyes gleaming.

"He's such a kid isn't he?" Fiore muttered.

"Well, it's to be expected; he is a teenager after all," Alex replied, smiling slightly as Nat overbalanced when he swung a broad sword around himself.

Alex idly looked around analysing anything of interest about the room. He noticed a patch of light coming through a part of the wall. Interested, he walked over to the crack and brushed his hand against it. There was something about it that made Alex a little uneasy. He tapped the wall slightly, and realised that it was actually a hidden door to a secret room.

"If any of you are interested, I think I've found a hidden door," Alex announced.

Everyone turned to look at him, which he took as his cue to open the door. He pushed on the wall, and the door moved round, revealing a room with a strange mirror in it.

Nat was the first to walk into the room. He ignored the mirror however, seeing the large broad sword imbedded in the centre of the room. Everyone else walked into the room. The moment Alex stepped into the room however he suddenly felt a strange feeling. This feeling was similar to the one he had felt back in the cave they had found Shannon in.

"Hold on guys, something doesn't feel right," he muttered, looking at the large mirror at the opposite end of the room.

"Oh come on, Alex, I can't feel anything," Nat replied, examining the broad sword that he had just picked up. The broad sword had strange markings on the blade, and one of its edges was completely blunt. Fiore however also seemed to have been feeling the same thing as Alex felt.

"Alex is right, I can feel something here as well," she told Nat, causing everyone to look round at her with a surprised expression on their faces. It was when Alex looked back at his reflection in the mirror, that he noticed his image hadn't moved its head, whilst everyone else's had.

"I think I've just found the source of this feeling," Alex announced.

They all turned round to see Alex's reflection act on its own, by walking towards them. When it reached the mirror on its side, it passed through it, emerging as a solid being that looked exactly like Alex, though notably looking a lot darker.

"Wow, that mirror must be magical," Nat exclaimed, gawping at the image of Alex.

"Gee, how'd you guess?" Alex remarked sarcastically.

What happened next surprised everyone. Alex's image suddenly had a slight fog effect on it, and they could see that its form was changing. When the effect was over, the Alex image had gained a black helmet, as well as full-plated, black armour with spikes on the shoulder pads. His face had also changed, because it now looked more like a black/blue mask than a face, though that's probably because it was a mask.

Suddenly the sword which Nat had hold of disappeared from his hand and appeared on the figure's side, in the same place Kumori was on Alex. The figure drew this sword, and pointed it challengingly at Alex, whilst making a sort of chuckling noise that had a slight echoing effect on it. Everyone had recoiled away from it when this had happened; however Alex had stayed where he was standing, grinning away at the figure.

"Well, well, this prison was the last place that I thought I'd find anyone with some guts," he grinned, drawing Kumori as he spoke.

The figure chucked, and the room suddenly gained a hint of blurred orange to it and seemed to be larger than before. Alex turned to the others.

"You guys should continue searching for Fiore's brother, I'll handle this...alone," Alex grinned defiantly.

"No way am I leaving you," Fiore exclaimed rather quickly.

"Fiore, if this guy is as good as he looks, this fight could get wild, I'll join you lot later," he replied, before turning to face the figure.

;Usually I'd ignore him and get in on the action, but this time it's his fight, come on, Fiore," Nat said to her, in a remarkably serious tone.

Fiore sighed, and gave one last longing look at Alex before she left the room with everyone else. (Devil May Cry: Ultra Violet soundtrack starts playing). When they had gone, the figure did some challenging actions with his sword.

"So what should I call you?" Alex asked the figure. The figure didn't answer, but instead ran at him and slashed his sword at him. "Fine, don't tell me your name," Alex said, blocking the next attack and attempting to counter attack him.

Surprisingly the figure blocked this attack like Alex had done his. The figure's sword suddenly glowed with a light blue aura, and when the figure attacked Alex again, his attacks were a lot faster. The figure was mostly doing a combination of horizontal and vertical upwards slashes whilst his sword had this aura. Alex had to roll out of the way from these attacks, and once or twice he was hit by the sword when he miss timed his rolls. Each time this happened, Alex would briefly feel slightly fatigued. It would only take around two seconds to recover, but that would be enough time for the figure to try and land a few more hits on him.

Sometimes the figures sword would lose its aura, which caused the figure would attack a lot slower and block a lot less. During this time Alex would get a few horizontal slashes in on the figure, but only one or two. He eventually saw a pattern in the figure's attacks, and so he waited for when there would be an opening, before quickly slashing him with Kumori's shadow slashes. These seemed to be effective in stunning the figure for a moment, but Alex had to keep switching up his attacks in order to keep himself fresh. He was only able to get a few hits in before the figure would do a horizontal counter attack that would force Alex back away from him.

This cycle continued for a while, with both of them taking a large beating. Alex could feel himself tiring as he blocked a vertical slash attack from the figure. In a desperate bid for a victory, and slashed wildly at the figure. When his own blade met the figure's, he split the sword in two and surprised the figure with a quick shadow slash that went across its chest, as well as forcing them both apart. Alex was panting very quickly at this point, and was having trouble standing. The figure was also tired, he could tell it, but not as much as Alex was. This was shown to be true because the figure rushed at Alex, and hit his sword with enough force that both halves were sent flying out of Alex's hands. The figure followed up on his advantage by hitting Alex in the chest with the blunt handle of his sword.

Alex fell back onto the floor and yelled in pain. The figure stood over him, laughing as he picked Alex up by his neck, chocking him of air. Alex could see his sight going fuzzy as well as a few lights appearing out of nowhere. Alex was slowly losing his feeling in his body, as his air supply was gone.

"ALEX...NO," a voice suddenly yelled.

In a desperate bid to free himself Alex kicked the figure in the ribs, forcing him to let go of him. As Alex gasped for air, the figure recovered from the attack and swung his sword down towards Alex's head. Alex rolled out of the way and, in one motion, picked up Kumori and slashed at the figure's legs. This move caused the figure to cry out in pain and fall to the ground. Its cry of pain was almost inhuman.

Alex got to his feet quickly and attempted to stab the figure through the chest. When he did however, the figure disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. Alex whipped around trying to see where the figure was, but he couldn't see him. Alex fell to his knees, exhausted.

"ALEX," the same voice yelled again; this time it was clear who it had come from. Alex looked up to see Fiore running over to him, looking concerned.

"Hey, Fiore, I'm ok...just a little tired that's all," he told her, standing up slowly. He was shaking slightly, having given everything in his fight against the figure.

"What was that thing?" Fiore asked him.

"I have no idea, but it was certainly a good challenge for me," Alex replied, grinning at her.

She smiled back at him, glad he was ok.

Alex looked back at where the figure had been and saw that in its place was some sort of black amulet. He walked over and picked it up. It felt familiar to him somehow, but he wasn't sure why.

Sighing, he walked out of the room with Fiore, looking back at the mirror one last time before leaving it.

**Well now, that was definatly unexpected. Who was that figure that almost killed Alex, and what relavance does the amulet have to Alex. Anyway as always please read and review this chapter. Until next time, bye...**


	11. A friend falls

**Hey everone, I'm back with a really long chapter. As the title suggests, someone is going to die. A lot happens as well as that. With all of this having been said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 10: A friend falls**

Alex walked along the corridor after Fiore. He felt very tired after his battle with the mysterious figure, but strangely fatigue wasn't the reason for this. He couldn't explain it, but somehow the fight had drained him of his energy.

"So where is everyone else?" he asked Fiore.

"They went on ahead," she replied.

"Then why didn't you follow?" Alex asked. Fiore stopped for a moment, wondering what to say. After a few seconds of silence, she answered.

"I...I was worried about you, there was something about that figure that seemed...I don't know...out of place," she said slowly, as if trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

"Yea, I felt something like that too...it's strange no one else did," Alex muttered, as they continued walking down the corridor.

"Perhaps all of this will become clear later on," Fiore smiled, and Alex returned it.

"I hope so...ah, there they are," Alex said suddenly, seeing Nat and Shannon coming out of a room.

"Nothing in there; this place is mostly deserted now," Nat muttered, before seeing Alex, "so how'd the fight go, Alex?" he asked.

"It was a challenge. I was very close to dying a few times during the fight; that guy was good," Alex remarked wearily, suddenly feeling weak. He leant on the wall to keep himself up.

"Alex, are you ok?" Fiore asked, sounding as concerned as before.

"Yea, that fight has taken a lot out of me. I think we should split up in order to find your brother quickly," Alex replied, attempting to stand and managing it, though barely.

"I'm not leaving you, Alex, I'll go with you to the other side of this prison," Fiore replied, walking over next to him. He smiled weakly at her, before turning his gaze back to Nat and Shannon.

"Will it be alright for you two to keep searching up here?" he asked them.

"Of course, because if we finish here first, then I'll go back to the armoury and finish looking through the weapons," Nat remarked eagerly.

Shannon rolled her eyes, before both of them walked to the next room. This room didn't really contain much, apart from a letter on a desk. Nat picked up the letter and began to read it. From what he could make out, it was some sort of orders from someone called 'Cynder' (remember neither Nat nor Shannon know about who or what Cynder is) detailing that if they encountered a break in, then they were to send a message back to the nearest army, ordering them to come and help out.

The reason for this was not mentioned, and since Nat didn't really register that Alex or Fiore could be the reason, he didn't bother taking notice of the rest of the letter. He placed it in his pocket, before he exited the room.

The room at the far end was a little different, because there was some sort of safe in the centre of it. As Nat walked over to it, a number of spikes appeared from the floor. He was lucky that he had stepped back in time, because a second later more spikes appeared around the room.

"Looks like this has something important in it, time to find out what," he remarked, dodging to the side of a set of spikes.

He spent the next few minutes carefully timing when he walked over the floor, so as to avoid any injuries from below. He knew that even though he was half-demon, he couldn't survive everything. There were one or two times when he would almost miss time the movements, which sometimes resulted in an arm or a leg getting a spike through it. The second time this happened, Shannon had looked away in disgust.

Eventually Nat made it to the safe. When he got there, he found a note lying next to it. He picked it up and read it.

_To anyone who reads this, I must congratulate you on getting through this death trap. As a reward the contents of the safe are now yours...but good luck in actually getting them to work, without any sort of ammo or reloading capabilities these things are worthless. _

After reading the note, Nat opened the safe door, and saw something which he did not expect to see.

"AWESOME," he exclaimed, picking up...two black handguns from the safe. He tried firing them, but found that nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. He looked back at the note.

_If you're wondering how these things came into this world, they arrived in a flash of purple light. The writing on the side of these weapons no doubt means something, but no one can read it. If you can...well that's all I can say, have fun._

Nat shrugged and looked at the guns. He saw writing on the sides of both of them. The writing was in some sort of demonic language, which meant that it wasn't from this world. What surprised Nat was that he was able to read it clearly, as if it were written in English. He then remembered that he was half-demon, so he shrugged this off.

"So what's with the guns?" Shannon said suddenly, causing Nat to whip around, having clearly forgotten that she was standing there.

"All I can work out from this is that these guns aren't like guns back home," he answered.

"So what does it say on the side of them?" Shannon asked. Nat looked at the guns again.

"Basically just something along the lines of 'read these words out loud and the guns will work for everyone and anyone who holds them," Nat replied, "And I think I might just try it," he continued.

What happened next was a little shocking, because Nat began to speak the words in the proper demonic language, which caused his voice to go all evil and deep, as well as slightly echoic. When he had finished, the guns briefly glowed and clicked, indicating that they were now usable. He decided to test them out, being the big kid that he was, by firing them at different parts of the room as well as at varying speeds.

"Hasn't it occurred to you that we are still in a prison, where the guards could catch us at any moment or be alerted at the slightest sound," Shannon yelled over the racket.

"Oh...oops," Nat exclaimed as he stopped shooting and looked over at her. Shannon sighed.

"Come on, let's find Alex and Fiore; hopefully they have had better luck than us," she muttered.

"What do you mean? These two will be very useful," Nat protested. Shannon ignored him as she walked out of the room.

Back to the point in time when they had all first split up, Alex and Fiore turned around and headed back to the stairs. When they got there, Alex practically collapsed.

"ALEX," Fiore exclaimed, quickly moving next to him.

"It's nothing, Fiore, don't worry," Alex replied, trying to stand, but this time failing.

"You can't go anywhere like that, you need to rest," Fiore told him.

"Not if I do this, I hope," Alex replied.

Before Fiore could react, he had transformed into his dragon form. What was surprising when he did this was that he immediately felt completely fine, as if he hadn't even been through the previous battle.

"Ah, that feels a lot better," Alex exclaimed, stretching his wings and tail out. Fiore was a little shocked at the sudden change.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked him, sounding concerned.

"Yes, I am; it's strange...I feel completely fine...maybe that figure only harmed my human form," Alex wondered, as he started walking.

"That doesn't make any sense, why would it only harm one side of you?" Fiore asked, walking up next to him.

"I really don't know, but I'm glad it did," he replied, smiling at Fiore, who promptly blushed slightly, though she didn't know why. "Anyway we can find out later, for now let's find your brother," he continued. They both continued down the corridor, whilst Fiore conveniently moved closer to Alex.

"I'm surprised by the lack of guards here," Fiore noted, looking around the corridor they were walking down.

"I saw some sort of bar whilst I was in the courtyard, so they're probably all there," Alex answered, before checking a room to their right.

That room turned out to be locked, but when Alex checked to see if anything was on the other side, he saw nothing. When they reached the end of the corridor, they found a door on their left which led into the main holding area. The room wasn't really that large and had about three cells at the most in it.

"Some prison, though I guess the only people here are important prisoners," Alex muttered as he and Fiore quietly snuck up on a guard. When guard saw them, Alex leaped at it and tore out its neck, before flinging it across the room with his mouth.

"That was violent," Fiore remarked.

"What can I say, Fiore, perhaps all the death is having an effect on me," Alex joked.

"Fiore...is that you?" a voice crocked from behind one of the doors. Fiore's eyes widened as she recognised the voice, ran over to the cell, and peered through the hole in the centre of the door.

"Iocus, Is that you?" Fiore asked, sounding shocked.

"Yea, it's me, your little brother," Iocus replied, sounding relieved. "Do you think you can free me? It's rather cramped in this cell," he added.

"Of course, we'll have you out in a minute," Fiore told him, as she tried to open the door but failed.

"You know it might help if you used the key," Alex remarked sarcastically, holding one up which he had just taken from the ape's corpse, having also turned back into his human form.

"Oh right, well then you open the door," she replied, looking a little surprised. Alex chuckled, before he walked over to the cell and opened it.

Iocus looked rather similar to Fiore, except his scales were a darker shade of red and his tail had a leaf-like shape to it, similar to Spyro's...strangely. When the door swung open, Iocus rushed over to Fiore, and they both hugged each other. Alex noticed that Iocus bore many still-open wounds which looked like they were from torture. He saw a tear fall down from Fiore's face, before she spoke.

"I'm so glad you're safe, when those apes captured you, I thought..." Fiore trailed off as Iocus silenced her.

"It's fine, you did what you could and now you've saved me," Iocus told her, breaking the hug.

"But your wounds; did they...? Fiore asked, before being interrupted by Iocus, who nodded.

"They're nothing; all that matters is that you and I are safe," Iocus sighed, looking into his sister's eyes.

"You know, I think this stuff should be kept for when we are back at the temple," Alex remarked, causing them both to look round at him.

The moment Iocus saw Alex; he immediately got into a fighting stance and looked like he would murder him. Thankfully Fiore stopped him by standing between him and Alex.

"It's alright, Iocus, he's not a threat," Fiore quickly calmed her brother.

"How can you say that? He's an ape; those things destroyed the temple and killed almost all of the unborn dragons there," Iocus snarled, trying to get past her.

"He's not like the others; in fact he isn't an ape," Fiore yelled, as she struggled to hold her brother back. Alex had decided to stand watching them, whilst he leant on the wall.

"To be accurate, I'm a human...although since humans evolved from apes, I can't see why you would mistake me for them," Alex muttered, nodding at the corpse.

"Look, I trust him even if you don't; he has earned my trust," Fiore told her brother, glaring at him.

"And how exactly did he do that?" Iocus asked.

"He's saved me numerous times from Cynder and her forces, isn't that reason enough?" she replied softly, looking back at Alex, who looked away from her.

"I wouldn't say I saved you. I mean, you could have protected yourself if you'd needed to; I just happened to be passing through," Alex muttered, sounding as if it wasn't a big deal.

"So he's basically saying that he didn't even do anything?" Iocus remarked, still glaring at Alex.

"But he chose to protect me from Cynder, when he could have left me, even when she hurt me so much that I could barely stand," Fiore sighed, looking into Alex's eyes when he turned his head back to look at her. "And I am truly grateful for that," she continued softly, almost at a level of volume that was difficult to hear.

"If you say so," her brother replied, though he gave a suspicious glare at Alex.

"Anyway we've talked enough; let's go find everyone else and see if Nat's found anything else of interest," Alex said suddenly.

"Good idea, the sooner we get out of here the better," Fiore replied, walking out into the corridor. Alex was about to walk with her, but Iocus stepped between him and her.

"I don't trust you, no matter what my sister says," he growled at Alex. Alex was unfazed by this and walked past him.

"I don't care if you don't trust me; Fiore trusts me and that's all that matters," he muttered, walking in step with Fiore. Iocus snorted and followed them, keeping a watchful eye on Alex. "Your brother is very cautious," Alex remarked quietly.

"Well, he has been captured for several days now; it's to be expected," Fiore replied.

"I just hope that he calms down when he learns about our past together," Alex said, as they drew near the armoury.

"I hope so," she agreed.

They arrived at the armoury to find Nat still looking at the weapons, whilst Shannon was idly gazing out of the window. Alex coughed once to let them know that they were there. Nat looked round and saw them standing at the door.

"Hey guys, I see you found her brother then," he called.

Iocus, who was standing between Fiore and Alex, snorted before he muttered, "Another ape, what a surprise."

"Technically he's a human, or at least half-human," Alex corrected him.

"I'm not interested," Iocus remarked, looking around the room. When he spotted Shannon, who was walking over to them, he smiled slightly.

"So what's your name?" Shannon asked him politely.

"My name is Iocus, and the sooner we get out of here the better, so I'd like to keep the introductions short," he replied, sounding very uninterested in her.

"Well, my name's Shannon, and that idiot over there who is busy swinging that sword around is Nathaniel, but we mostly just call him Nat," she told him, nodding at Nat, who had picked up a broad sword.

"Shannon...that's an odd name for a dragon," Iocus queried, looking at her with an interested expression.

"Oh...is it?" she asked.

"That could be due to the fact she originally came from the world I...lived in, same as Nat over there," Alex explained, hesitating ever so slightly.

"Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, how about we get out of here, because I can't stand this place for another minute," Iocus remarked.

"Sure, I mean it's not as if we have any reason for staying here," Alex said, walking towards out of the room, followed by everyone else.

"Hey Alex, check out these things I found," Nat excitedly showed Alex the guns he had gained. Alex wasn't impressed.

"So you found two hand guns did you...I'm not that interested in how you got them, nor why they are in this world," he told him.

"Hey, you can have one if you want," Nat offered.

"Nope, I don't need guns...all I need is Kumori, because she can easily outmatch your guns in power," Alex replied smugly, looking fondly at his sword, whilst he placed his hand on its handle.

"_Do you really mean that?" _she asked him, sounding surprised.

"_Of course; you sound surprised," _he replied.

"_It's just that...no one who has ever wielded me has ever said that, no one has actually meant it," _she answered.

"_I've always preferred swords over guns and you're no exception,"_ he told her.

Alex heard Kumori sigh at this, obviously happy for the attention. He smiled, knowing that he was doing something right.

"_Thanks Alex, I..." _she began, before Iocus interrupted them.

"Who's Kumori?" Iocus asked.

"My sword, she is a good one too. I wouldn't go anywhere without her," Alex answered, unsheathing her slightly with his thumb.

"She...how can a sword be a female?" Iocus eyed Alex suspiciously.

"Because apparently that sword isn't like other swords, and instead has a female spirit inside of it, which grants the sword its power," Fiore explained.

"And it's also why I don't have to sharpen her blade edge, since no matter what I cut through, it never seems to dull the blade," Alex added, as they walked down the stairs.

"Guys, don't you think it's odd that there aren't any guards here?" Shannon wondered.

"Oh come on, we've killed them all, there's no way any others can be alive," Nat remarked, smiling slightly. Alex groaned at this, knowing that whenever he said something like that, he would end up being proved badly wrong.

"Oh yea..." he began, walking up to the door, and looking through the window, before adding, "so what do you call...them?" He pushed the door open to reveal a large number of apes standing in the courtyard, all looking rather bored. Nat stopped in his tracks, his smile briefly fading.

"Ah...woops, I guess they did hear my gun shots after all," he murmured. Alex hit his own forehead out of despair of Nat's blunder.

"You absolute numpty," he yelled at Nat, who simply shrugged.

"Hey, at least it means that we can have a lot of fun taking them down," Nat replied, an evil grin forming on his face. Before anyone could stop him - though not for the want of trying – he rushed off towards them, letting out some sort of battle cry as he brandished his short swords at them.

"I so wanted to limit the amount of blood that got spilled today," Alex sighed, before walking calmly into the mass of apes, though in a different direction to where Nat was now _attempting _to decapitate anyone who got near him. Alex only went a short distance before an ape lieutenant stopped him.

"Stop right there, surrender and you will be spared," it ordered.

"How about you let us all go so I don't have to dirty my sword? ...The mad man over there you can have though," Alex joked, as he watched Nat block an attack from one ape and then swiftly kill it with his hidden blade. The ape laughed.

"Sorry, but I have my orders to capture all of you, particularly the dragons," it told him.

"I guessed as much," Alex sighed, before he quickly unsheathed kumori, did three quick slashes with her before turning away from the ape and slowly sheathing the sword. As always he did it slowly, and when the sword clicked into place in its scabbard, the ape fell over, dead.

"Ha, I love doing that," Alex said to himself, before turning to look at a bunch of apes that were looking at him with terrified expressions on their faces. "If you want to live, I'd leave now," he told them, grinning as they ran off screaming. Fiore had idly watched Alex do all of that, with an amused expression on her face.

Turning to Iocus and Shannon, she asked, "Do you think we should join in?"

"Just like old times," Iocus grinned for the first time since he was freed. Fiore smiled at him, before they both leaped into the fray. Shannon however didn't feel like fighting anything at that point, so she simply lay down and watched them all go at it.

Most of the next few minutes was spent with them all massacring the apes in the courtyard. Alex at one point noticed that Fiore was surrounded by apes, so he unsheathed his sword and charged towards her, slashing at any and all apes he passed by, until he delivered one final slash to finish off the ones on Fiore's left.

"You ok?" he asked her, as all the apes he had run past fell over.

"Of course; it's my brother we have to worry about," she remarked, looking over to where Iocus was. He seemed to be mostly leaping about and burning the apes with his fire element, though once or twice he would knock them into each other.

"Yea, anyway this has gone on long enough," Alex muttered.

"I agree; this is fun, but unnecessary," Fiore agreed.

"I second that," Shannon said, having appeared next to them from where she had been sat.

"Hey, Nathaniel, while none of us want to spoil your fun, we should get going," Alex called to him.

"But why, this is more fun than I've had in years," Nat replied, using his hand guns to shoot a few apes that were near him.

"He's right, you moron, we should get going," Iocus yelled from next to Fiore, having finished off the apes he had been attacking.

"Hey, I am not a moron, and we are not leaving until every ape is dead or running away," Nat yelled back, turning to face them. Iocus glared at him.

"Look, we are going now; there are barely any apes left, so it's pointless fighting them," he growled.

"Yea well, I want to be thorough about it; if any of them escape they could come back to kill us," Nat argued, not paying any attention to his surroundings.

Alex suddenly noticed that the apes were no longer attacking them, but were instead looking up at the sky in awe. He followed their gaze and instantly saw something that made his heart stop for a moment. Against the black sky, he saw red wings and the body of a large black dragon.

"Oh no, tell me that it isn't her," he exclaimed, shifting towards Fiore and lowering his sword next to her protectively. She had also seen the black dragoness and so shuffled behind Alex's legs.

"Cynder," she whimpered, looking up as the black dragoness landed on the ground rather delicately. Nat looked around and spotted her and, since he hadn't ever seen her before, he wasn't that scared to see her.

"Wow, who's this then?" he asked, apparently unfazed by her presence.

"That, my friend, is Cynder, and she's also the reason Fiore here is now trembling behind me," Alex told him, looking down at Fiore, "and Fiore, I know that you are scared, but I'm going to need your help," he added softly. Fiore stopped shaking and looked up at him.

"Really?" she asked. Alex nodded and smiled at her. She suddenly felt as though the fear was gone as she looked into his eyes.

"Cynder, that's an odd name for a dragon," Nat remarked, earning a glare from Cynder which actually scared him slightly, as well as a fire ball to his face. His cries of pain were short, particularly because it took only a few minutes after Cynder had stopped '_Flaming' _him for his burn marks to heal.

"I guess that's one advantage of having half-demon lineage," Alex remarked as he stood next to Nat.

"That was not nice," Nat muttered, shaking slightly, "but it's time for you to die," he practically growled.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're going to get beaten up easily by her," Alex warned him.

Nat, being the typical amateur fighter that he was, ignored Alex's advice and charged towards Cynder. Cynder unsurprisingly knocked him back with her paw. He landed on the ground with a defiant thud, followed by his cry of pain.

"Good grief, that's why I told you," Alex remarked, smiling slightly as Nat got up slowly. Nat ignored him and whipped out his two hand guns, before firing a few shots at Cynder. Oddly none of the bullets went in, or even damaged her in the slightest.

"Any more futile attempts to attack me?" she taunted, whilst Nat looked shocked that his guns didn't do anything.

"I think it's time for you to let the expert handle this," Alex told him, as Nat began to back away from Cynder.

"Yea, I'll just be killing those apes now," he muttered, before he ran over to a group of apes that he hadn't killed. Alex shook his head and looked back at Cynder.

"Alright, let's see what you've got," he challenged, drawing Kumori out of her scabbard and pointing the blade point at Cynder.

"You're not fighting her alone; I'm going to help," Fiore suddenly exclaimed, running to stand next to Alex.

"Well, well, it seems that you are actually worth capturing; this should make it worthwhile when you're a rotting corpse on the ground," Cynder growled.

"You really think you can take us two? Well, bring it on," Fiore snarled, a newfound confidence in her voice.

All three of them got into a fighting stance, with Alex splitting his sword in two. They all rushed at each other, Fiore using her element to burn and distract Cynder, whilst Alex would get in close and do some slashes with his sword. Cynder would mostly shrug off the fire attack and would then attempt to knock Alex off his feet. This only happened once, during which time Cynder was about to take advantage of it by impaling him on her tail. Fiore comet dashed into her to prevent her from doing this.

Alex stood up and use a distance shadow slash to separate Cynder from Fiore. They would both repeat the same procedure, except Alex imbued a few shadow slashes in his melee attacks, which would briefly stun Cynder. After the second attempt at pulling off their tactic, Cynder decided to change things slightly. She first knocked Alex away from herself and then disappeared in a cloud of shadow.

"Huh...where's she gone?" Shannon asked from the sidelines. Fiore looked around, trying to see where she was, only to gasp as she reappeared behind Alex.

"ALEX, behind you," she yelled, running towards him.

Alex had barely enough time to register what she had said, before Cynder had slashed at his own neck. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Fiore skidded to a halt and watched in horror as Cynder bearded down on Alex, like some sort of cannibal-type of creature, a mad look of twisted enjoyment on her face as she slashed at him.

Alex rolled away from her, but was soon trapped as she leaped on top of him. All the wind was knocked out of him as Cynder's paws landed firmly on his chest. Fiore couldn't stand what she saw as she ran towards Cynder. She leaped at her, but instead of comet dashing she latched onto Cynder's neck and bit into it, causing Cynder to scream in pain and lash about wildly.

Alex managed to get back up off his feet, and wasted no time in stabbing his sword into Cynder's chest, or at least he tried to because Cynder slashed her tail and forced him back away from her. Suddenly Cynder bit into Fiore's back, earning a yelp from her, before she threw her off herself. Fiore landed on the ground near Alex, and yelped the moment she hit it.

"FIORE," both Alex and Iocus examined as they ran over to her.

"I-I'm fine," she said, standing up and wincing. Alex could see the bite marks in her back, which were also blood stained.

"You're not fine, but that wound doesn't look to deep," Alex told her, as he bent down to check.

"I think it's time we left here, and quickly," Iocus said, surprisingly calmly.

Alex said nothing as he watched Cynder, who was now battling Nat and winning. Since Nat didn't know how to fight dragons, he was a little stuck as to what to do. Because of this he spent most of the time dodging her attacks, or attempting to slash at her. Shannon had at this point joined in the fight and was helping as best she could. Alex decided to join them. He ran towards them drawing Kumori as he ran. He slashed at Cynder, and managed to cut a small part of her side. It didn't go very deep, but it was a start.

The next few minutes were spent with all three of them attacking her, and then dodging out of the way of a counter attack. Eventually Alex and Nat were able to stab Cynder on both sides of her body. Screaming in pain, she used her wings to knock them back. Shannon used this chance to attack Cynder from behind. Then the unexpected happened. Cynder had obviously known that Shannon was behind her, so she suddenly thrust her tail back in her direction.

"SHANNON, LOOK OUT," Alex yelled, but she didn't react in time. The blade attachment of Cynder's tail pierced through Shannon's chest and went rather far into her body. She gasped, as blood trickled out of her mouth. She looked sadly over at Alex and Nat.

"I'm...sorry," she sighed, before her body went limp and she fell over.

"Shannon...no," Alex and Nat said weakly, watching in horror as Cynder threw the dead body to the side and sent a fire ball at it.

"NOOOO," Nat cried in rage, his eyes suddenly glowing as he ran full pelt towards Cynder, who simply knocked him into the prison wall with her now blood-stained tail. Alex looked shocked as he stared at where Shannon's body lay. He turned to look back at Cynder, his eyes glowing red as he glared at her with an expression of deep hatred.

"CYNDER, YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT," he growled, as his body began to transform into his dragon form. This time his form was different, because his whole body seemed to be emanating a thin mist of shadow. His glowing, red eyes bore into Cynder as he slowly walked towards her, breathing heavily. Fiore was looking at Alex with a mixture of terror and realisation.

"This is just like before," she exclaimed.

Although Alex heard what she had said, he didn't acknowledge it as he leaped into the air and fired what looked like dark fire at Cynder. Cynder was able to dispel this attack with her own Fire, but not completely as some of the flames hit her scales.

"So you have a darkness do you? Well, you might just be worth my time," Cynder wondered, as she watched Alex prepare another attack.

From his airborne position he dived to the ground, creating an inferno of black flames around him when he landed. Cynder was unable to counter this attack, as the flames licked around her body, burning her scales as she yelped in pain. Whilst the inferno was still going, Alex flew towards Cynder and hit her with enough force to send her flying back into the wall at the opposite end of the courtyard. Fiore and Iocus ran towards him as he landed mere centimetres away from where Cynder lay sprawled below a deep dent in the ground. She struggled to raise her head, but when she did she looked into Alex's glowing red eyes. Alex, for a second, thought he saw a look of hope on her face as she looked into his eyes.

"Kill me...please," she pleaded, her voice no longer sounding evil and mad, but pure and innocent, as if from a child. Alex's eyes widened as he heard this, and he remembered what one of the apes had said.

"_W__e had to pick one of the other eggs and Cynder happened to be the lucky one..._ _I hear that she had to go through a lot of torture before they corrupted her fully..._ _because I feel sorry for her," _he heard the words appear in his head. He tried shaking these thoughts from his head, but when he looked back into her eyes, he saw something which made his heart stop.

"No...I can't," he muttered, his voice and eyes returning to normal, as he staggered back.

Cynder sprang up and flew off, not giving any of them a chance to stop her. Alex fell to the ground, his whole body shaking.

Fiore walked calmly over to him, a look of sadness in her eyes. She lay down next to him and could see tears rolling down the side of his face. Sighing, she placed her wing around him, causing him to look up into her eyes. The look in his eyes told her everything.

"Why...why didn't you kill her? She deserved to die," Iocus spat from behind him. "She killed your friend a few seconds ago, yet you let her live...why?" he asked, his voice bristling with rage.

Alex looked back at him, before he answered in a soft voice, "Because she is my sister."

**Ohh, now that was unexpected. So Cynder is Alex's sister is she. Oh and shannon's also dead :( Anyway things just got a lot more complicated. So please read and review this chapter and until next time, bye...**


	12. Emotions

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. You can all probably guess what's going to happen in this chapter, so with that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 11: Emotions**

"_Because she is my sister,"_Alex said softly. Both Iocus and Fiore were shocked by this news.

"What...but how, there's no way!" Fiore spluttered. Alex looked into her eyes.

"I'll explain later; right now we should get going, I'm sure you all don't want to stay here," he muttered, standing up with Fiore. Just as they were about to go, they heard a groan behind them. They all turned to see Nat climbing out of the rubble that was left in the hole he had made.

"Aw man, that's the worst beating I've ever taken," he muttered, walking over to them. He looked at them, before he realised something. "Hey, where's Alex?" he asked.

"Right here," Alex replied, having realised that he was in his dragon form. Nat's eyes went wide when he heard this.

"Since when have you been a dragon? I mean I know you're half-dragon, but how can you be in this form?" he asked.

"I'll tell you all later, but I really want to get out of here," Alex sighed, walking towards the exit.

"What about Shannon?" Fiore asked. Alex stopped and looked at the place where her body lay. He could see the fire still burning her body, which was now indistinguishable.

"She's already dead and has been cremated; there's nothing left to be done," he muttered sadly.

"You're just going to leave her here, you're not even going to give her a proper burial?" Nat asked angrily.

"No," Alex answered simply, walking out of the gate with a sad look on his face.

None of them said a word as they left the prison and walked back towards the forest. Fiore kept glancing at Alex, looking more concerned by the minute. Eventually they set up camp, but it was an awkward silence that was around them as they did so. When they were all finished, they sat down looking at Alex expectantly. He sighed, having put off his explanation.

"Most of you will be wondering why I'm actually a dragon," he stated.

"What do you mean most of us?" Iocus asked.

Alex looked at Fiore sadly, before he answered, "Fiore knows why I am a dragon...because we grew up together as dragons," he explained.

"Wait, what...how on earth?" Nat spluttered. Alex sighed.

"I actually was born in this world as a normal dragon, not a hybrid human-dragon," he continued.

"He was born at the same time as I was," Fiore cut in, her voice displaying sadness. Nat was now looking between them with an open mouth.

"And I had forgotten most of this, until the night we all slept at the temple," Alex muttered, looking away from Nat and Iocus, and staring at Fiore, who was right next t him at this point. Nat suddenly looked at them with a wide-eyed expression.

"Oh God...please tell me you didn't..?" he began.

"No, we didn't; before we entered my room, Alex had a vision of both of us when we were younger, running through the temple corridors," Fiore blushed at the thought of what Nat might have suggested they were doing.

"When I saw this, I brought it up with Fiore, and when I touched her head with this hand," Alex added, holding up his hand, "we both received a number of key visions about our past...together." He said the last word with a little emotion.

"One of these visions showed the time that we first became friends," Fiore said. She proceeded to explain what each of the visions they had seen had shown.

"...And when I woke up the next morning, I found Alex in the form that he is in now," she finished, gazing lovingly at Alex as she spoke.

"And I will tell you that absolutely nothing happened between us during that time, I just learnt how to switch between human and dragon form," Alex suddenly growled, glaring angrily at Nat.

"Okay, I get the message, you didn't do anything," he replied.

"There's still one thing we don't know, which is how I ended up on earth, and why I gained a human form," Alex said. There was silence for a moment.

"Well, I'm off to sleep," Nat remarked.

"Same; it'll be nice sleeping out in the open for once," Iocus added. Within moments Nat was asleep.

Alex, Fiore and Iocus however lay awake.

"There's still one thing I don't get; how is Cynder your sister?" Iocus asked.

"When I looked into her eyes, something just told me she was, I can't explain it," Alex answered. Iocus shrugged and lay his head down, and was soon asleep.

Neither Fiore nor Alex could fall asleep however, because Alex was still saddened by Shannon's death, whilst Fiore was worried about him due to what had happened to him when she had died. Fiore suddenly shuffled closer o Alex.

"There must be more to it than that," she whispered.

"Yea, there is, but it is very personal, something I could only discuss with you," Alex replied, placing his paw on a part of his neck. Suddenly the amulet that he had picked up from the figure from the mirror appeared around his neck. "And I think this amulet might have something to do with it," he added, seeing the shocked expression on her face. Fiore looked away from him for a moment.

"Alex, when you fought Cynder, you suddenly gained a mist of shadow around your body, and that reminded me of a time when we were young," she muttered.

"Oh, when was this?" he asked.

She looked back into his eyes and he could see tears in hers. She placed her paw on his amulet.

Suddenly the amulet began to glow and they immediately knew that they were about to view another vision.

They were treated to a memory of an incident during the time when they were three. Alex remembered that an earth dragon much larger than him had begun picking on Fiore.

"The dragon that bullied me was doing so because I was friends with you," she said sadly, her voice appearing next to Alex. The reason for this was because Alex - being a black dragon - was considered bad luck by all but the guardians. Despite the gaps in his memory, Alex could remember what happened on this occasion quiet clearly.

_One day whilst walking through the temple, Alex had heard a commotion in the courtyard at the bottom of the temple. When he arrived at the scene, he saw that the earth dragon was once again picking on Fiore, only this time he had some friends with him. What he didn't know was that they had been physically picking on Fiore this time. _

"_What's wrong, Fiore, no screams for us?" the green dragon gloated, having hit Fiore with his tail. The past Alex was now able to see Fiore, who looked really beaten up at this point. _

"_Leave me alone, I've done nothing to you," she almost sobbed. At once all of the dragons laughed. _

"_Oh I know that, but then you've been hanging around that black freak of a dragon, despite everything we've been taught about them being cursed," the earth dragon smugly told her. Fiore looked really upset now and both the past and _**present**_ Alex felt really angry at the dragons. _

"_He is not a freak; he's a lovely, normal dragon, just like anyone else," she sobbed, burying her head in the ground as tears leaked down her face. _

The present Alex looked over at the Fiore next to him, who was looking up at him.

"Did you really mean that?" he asked. She nodded, and Alex shuffled closer to her, so that their scales were touching.

"_Lovely? Normal? I'll tell you that he is anything but normal, but perhaps you'll realise that after a few more beatings," the earth dragon shouted, moving towards Fiore threateningly. Fiore tried to protect herself with her wings, but was knocked aside by the dragon's large paw. She yelped as she landed on the ground. Both forms of Ales were at this point furious at him. As the dragon moved to attack her again, Alex ran forward in front of Fiore and growled at him. _

"_Don't even think about touching her again," he growled, glaring up at the dragon, who seemed amused at this. _

"_Oh, and what is the black freak going to do if I touch her again, is he going to fight me?" the dragon mocked, causing the other dragons around him to laugh. _The present Alex remembered that at that moment, he was so angry that something awoke inside of him, something powerful. It wasn't anything like a different presence, but more like a deep power. _The past Alex closed his eyes and sighed. _

"_I'll only tell you this once," he began, opening his eyes to reveal that they were now brightly glowing red, "leave me and Fiore alone, and this won't get nasty," he growled softly. Unsurprisingly, the dragons didn't back down. _

"_You've got some nerve threatening me like that," the earth dragon muttered, before attempting to knock Alex out of the way. This time however, Alex was tapping into powers he didn't even know about, using his feelings of anger and hate to empower himself. He opened his maw and let out a burst of black shadow fire. At once the earth dragon yelped as it was surrounded by a cloud of darkness, preventing it from seeing, or even breathing. _

"_I WARNED YOU!" Alex snarled, his voice distorting slightly as he glared at the other dragons._Even in a memory, his words seemed to scare Fiore greatly. Alex noticed this because she had buried her head in his side._ Despite how much smaller he was compared to them, the other dragons were now backing away from him, as he slowly walked towards them. _

"_If you want to live, I suggest you leave," he muttered. Almost as soon as he had said those words, did the dragons take flight and leave them. Only the one that was surrounded by a cloud of shadow remained, though he was now on the ground, gasping for what little air he could get. Alex removed the shadow cloud and walked away from him. _

"_Remember, if you cross me or Fiore again, then I won't spare you," Alex snarled, causing him to practically run off screaming. Alex ignored him and looked at Fiore, who was now trembling at the sight of him. _The present Alex remembered feeling his heart sink at this. _His past self walked up to her, his whole body returning to normal, a look of sadness on his face. _

"_I'm sorry that you had to see that," he sighed, looking at her, only to see her staring back at him as if he was the abomination that the others had been calling him. _

"_Get away from me," she screamed, scrabbling away from him as he walked up to her. He stopped suddenly, looking directly at her now. _

"_Fiore...it's me, Alex," he attempted to calm her down. He took a step forward, which was actually a bad move at the time._

"_GET BACK, YOU," Fiore practically screamed, accidently letting a fire ball loose. He dodged out of the way too late and the fire ball hit him on his side. _Somehow, through the vision, Alex felt the pain roll over him and he let out a cry of pain at exactly the same time as his past self. Both the present and past Fiores looked shocked at what had just happened._ The past Alex stood where he was, hanging his head to the ground. As he did this, a tear fell down from his eyes and landed on the ground. The past Fiore realised too late that Alex wasn't a threat to her._

"_Oh No," she began. Before she could say anything else, Alex had already run off through the corridors of the temple. She was left standing out in the open, unsure as what to do, or what had just happened._

The vision shifted slightly and Alex found himself looking at more of a memory than a vision. He let the events of his past unfold around him as he watched.

(Memory flashback POV)

_News of what had happened the night before had spread around the temple quickly. Every dragon seemed to know what Alex had done to the older dragon, and what Fiore had done to him as well. Unsurprisingly, everyone was siding with Fiore and saying that she had done well to burn Alex. Some of them even complemented her on her achievement at learning her element so quickly. None of this made Fiore feel happy, because she was worried about Alex. The guardians however either didn't know about what had happened, or weren't bothering about it at all. Fiore had tried to find Alex and apologize to him for what had happened, but she couldn't find him anywhere. She soon realised that he was avoiding her out of fear, which somehow made her want to talk to him even more. _

_It was the night of the raid on the temple that she finally caught up with him. He was sat on the ledge, looking up at the sky idly, a look of sadness on his face. Fiore walked slowly up next to him. He noticed her and quickly moved away from her. _

"_Do you mind if I sit here with you?" she asked him. He shook his head._

"_N-No I don't mind, just don't hurt me," he answered nervously. It had been about three days, yet he was still afraid of her. Fiore sighed sadly and lay down looking at the ground. He saw this and edged towards her slightly. _

"_I'm sorry for what I did to you, Alex. I-I don't know what came over me," she muttered, looking up at him. _

"_It doesn't matter now; you've shown me that I don't belong here," he replied in a depressed tone. _

"_What do you mean?" she asked, moving closer to him. Alex didn't move this time, having assured himself she wasn't going to harm him._

"_I mean that you have made me realise I can't exist in civilization...so I'm leaving this place tonight," he looked away from her. He could tell that she was shocked by this news._

"_Why...what could make you want to leave behind the life you have here?" Fiore exclaimed, moving so that she was in front of him. _

"_This life I have here isn't worth living; everywhere I look people are giving me dirty and suspicious looks. I can't live with it anymore," he muttered, continually looking away from her. "And it's not as if anyone will miss me; they'd all be better off without me."_

_There was an awkward silence. "Alex...please...stay here...for me," Fiore pleaded softly, tears forming in her eyes. Alex looked back at her and saw this. Before they could continue, the apes began to attack the temple. Not waiting for anything, Alex ran back into the temple followed by Fiore. They made their way through the temple, into the room where all the eggs were being kept. They found most of the eggs being smashed by the apes. Fiore spotted the egg of her unborn brother about to be destroyed, and quickly killed the ape. Alex was about to do the same for the egg that which continued his unborn sister (remember that it's Cynder, I know it's complicated), but he found it being taken away by a large ape. He saw Ignitus attempt to stop the said ape, but he was knocked aside. Alex tapped into his shadow element and was able to pass through the apes. When he did this, he gave chase to the ape that held 'Cynder's' egg._

_He passed through hall way after corridor as he chased the ape through the temple. They eventually were out in the swamp and Alex had at this point begun to tire. He realised a little too late that pursuing the ape was a bad idea, because he found himself surrounded by a group of small apes. While they might have been small, Alex was only slightly taller than them, which made things difficult. _

_He tried to follow the ape which held the egg, but couldn't. He felt a great deal of anger well up inside of him and his body gained a black cloud of shadow. He began to attack the apes that had surrounded him with surprising skill and ferocity. He used his shadow element to make the apes fight each other, which even he was surprised at, that he knew how to do it. Eventually he had killed all the apes around him, though not without gaining a lot of scratches and cuts on his body and face. _

_A lieutenant- type of ape appeared and, seeing the carnage, prepared to attack Alex._

_The ape drew a sword out of a sheath and split it in two. _The sword looked very familiar to the present Alex who was watching this vision.

_At this point the past Alex had returned to normal, but still looked angry. When he dived at the ape, it swung the sword clumsily to the side, slashing Alex's face. He cried out in pain and landed on the ground. _

"_You will not stop me from rescuing that egg," he growled. _

"_And what could entice you to waste your life on one unimportant egg," the ape goaded. Alex snarled, before suddenly moving so fast towards the ape that it looked like he had teleported at it. He hit the ape with so much force that he was sent flying into a tree. _

"_THAT EGG ISN'T UNIMPORTANT TO ME," he growled, his eyes briefly glowing. The ape got back up and ran at him, again waving the sword clumsily around its head. Alex dodged one of the slashes, but was hit by the second slash. For a split second it almost sounded as if the sword screamed, as if it was in agony. What happened next was surprising, because suddenly the swords flew out of the ape's hands. It watched them with a wide eyed look, as they seemed to be moving on their own. Both halves of the sword joined together and shot towards the ape. The sword impaled the ape through its heart, killing it instantly. Both Alexs were shocked at what had happened and the past Alex moved slowly towards the sword. _

"_Free...at last," the sword exclaimed, causing Alex to yelp and back away from it in fright. "Do not be afraid, young dragon, I will not hurt you," the sword soothed, its voice sounding exactly like Kumori's. _

"_Who...who are you?" Alex asked nervously. _

"_My name is Kumori, and this pathetic being was unfortunately the most recent person to wield me," she replied, sounding disgusted at the thought. _

"_So why did you kill him?" Alex asked nervously. _

_Kumori was silent for a moment, thinking as to what she could tell him. "When he first hit you with my blade, I caught a glimpse of something in you," she continued. _

"_What did you see?" he asked. _

"_I saw in you a pure heart and mind, plagued by memories of pain and suffering at the hands of your own kind," she answered sadly. "And I couldn't kill something that had suffered like that, so I killed this...thing," she said quietly, the word 'thing' rolling of as if it was something poisonous. _

"_So what now?" he asked. _

"_Well, since my wielder has been killed, I must find a new being to control me...but I have already chosen who is to wield me," she told him, a sense of triumph in her voice. The sword rose up into the air and hovered next to Alex's paws. The moment he touched the sword handle with his paw, everything went white around him. When the light cleared, the present Alex could no longer see where his past self was, but in his place was a black amulet, just like the one he was wearing just then._

The vision faded, and Alex found himself back in the forest.

Fiore was speechless, as she looked at him. "So could it be that she transported you to the other world?" she eventually asked. Alex was silent for a moment.

"I don't know, all I can think about now...is how I failed Cynder," he suddenly cried.

"Alex, you did what you could, just like I did with my brother and he's with us now," Fiore said softly.

"I should have saved her back then, but I was young, I couldn't even protect her," he continued to cry, tears streaming down his face. Fiore looked sadly at him, before she put her wing around him.

"It doesn't matter, Alex, it's all in the past now," she tried to calm him down.

He stopped crying, but he didn't look at her. "Anyone I try to protect ends up injured...or dead like Shannon," he muttered, the emotion gone from his voice.

"That's not true, you have kept me alive on more than one occasion," Fiore smiled at him, but quickly lost it when she saw that it wasn't helping.

"But I abandoned you all those years ago. I should have stayed with you; instead I was selfish and went after my sister. I don't deserve to be with anyone. I should just leave and let people forget about me...after all they would be much happier without me," he muttered sadly, sounding incredibly like how he had done in the vision.

Fiore sighed, placed a paw on the side of Alex's face, and moved his head so that he was looking at her. "Alex...I could never forget you, and nor do I want to forget you," she began, tears beginning to form in her eyes; "you meant so much to me that when you left I...I...couldn't stop thinking about you," she sighed.

Alex was now surprised by what she was saying. "I mean something...to you," he asked, sounding as if it was too good to be true.

She nodded and Alex suddenly felt a lot better. "And I realise now why I couldn't forget you, no matter how much I would try." She placed her other paw on the other side of his head and moved it closer to his.

"And why is th-mhhh...?" Alex began, before he was silenced as Fiore kissed him passionately. He was shocked by what she had done and he pulled back away from her. Fiore looked disappointed when he did this. She looked sadly away from him, believing that he didn't love her.

"I...I'm sorry... If you don't feel the same way, then I'll...," she began, before she was cut off by Alex, who was now kissing her. It was her turn to be shocked, but she soon relaxed as she closed her eyes and moaned slightly, enjoying the moment. As they kissed, their tongues danced around the insides of their mouths, exploring the other's as they enjoyed the moment that they had both secretly wanted. Alex placed his wing around Fiore and used it to pull her closer to him. She didn't refuse, but instead used her arms to pull Alex and herself down to the ground. They both rolled across the ground once, finishing with Fiore standing over Alex, as she broke the kiss.

"I love you," she sighed, smiling down at him, as he smiled back up at her.

"I love you too, Fiore," Alex replied softly, as Fiore walked off him, allowing him to get up. They looked at each other happily, seeing each other in a new light.

"Anyway, we should get some sleep," Fiore said, breaking the silence.

"Yea...best to keep this quiet until we get back to the temple," Alex replied, as they both walked over to a spot near to the fire. They both lay down next to each other. Alex moved so his side was touching her side.

"I missed you, you know...but I never lost hope that you'd return," Fiore whispered softly, as she stared into his eyes. Alex was silent for a moment, as he gazed into her eyes.

"In the human world, I had dreams of the times we had together, and the older I got, the more I remembered," he told her, moving his head close to hers, "and while I could never remember your name, I always thought about you, even when I wasn't asleep," he purred.

"Really?" she asked, sounding surprised. He nodded, and she moved even closer to him, giving him a small loving peck to the face. She subconsciously wrapped her tail round him. He looked down at it and smiled, entwining his tail with hers. She giggled when he did this and laid her head on his neck. She noticed that the shadow cloud that was surrounding Alex's tail had momentarily left, revealing a dark blue blade like object, similar to Cynder's.

"Like brother...like sister," she sighed. Alex was suddenly reminded of what had happened only a few hours ago.

"Yea...just like her," he replied darkly.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Fiore apologized, realising her mistake.

"It doesn't matter; all that matters is that I have you...my love," he whispered the last words in a seductive tone. Fiore giggled when she heard this.

"I like the sound of that...my love," she replied, smiling at him. He couldn't help but feel his spirits lift when he saw her smiling. He laid his head down and shuffled closer to her. Like before, Fiore placed her wing around his body, prompting him to let out a purring noise.

"Aw, you're so cute when you do that," she said, laying her head down next to his. They both soon fell asleep, with Alex's paw placed on hers, happy in the company of each other.

**Have I ever mentioned that i really enjoy writing scenes like this. The visions have helped explian the reason why Alex disappeared. Anyway Please read and review this chapter. Until next time, bye...**


	13. Nat's fight

**Hi everyone, sorry for the long time it took to update, I've had a lot of school work piled on me, so i couldn't get round to writing this chapter. Anyway now that I have, on with the story...**

**Chapter 12: Nat's fight**

Alex awoke early the next morning. He raised his head and looked around. No one else seemed to be awake, despite how much background noise there was from a nearby river. He smiled when he saw Fiore's sleeping body next to his, with her wing still around him. Wanting to get up, he shuffled out from under her wing, although he regretted it when he suddenly felt colder. He stood up and stretched each part of his body.

"Well now, do I wake you up or not?" he asked himself, looking back at Fiore. He decided to just go ahead and wake her, since she wouldn't mind if he was near her. He nudged her face with his own. She groaned, but made as if not to move.

"Come on, Fiore, its morning, so rise and shine," he said, smiling slightly.

"I don't feel like getting up," Fiore mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes.

"Looks like you need an incentive," Alex grinned. He lent his head forward and used his paw to lift her head up. When she didn't open her eyes, he kissed her, causing her to moan with satisfaction. It was a short kiss, but enough to rouse Fiore. She stood up and stretched like he had done before.

"Morning handsome," she smiled.

"Handsome? You've got to be exaggerating, gorgeous," Alex remarked, raising an eyebrow. She giggled at this, and nuzzled his head lovingly.

"Well, enough of our fun, we should wake them," she said, nodding at Nat and Iocus.

"We could leave Nathaniel, I mean it's not as if we need him," Alex joked. Despite this, Fiore and Alex made sure that they were both awake.

"Rise and shine, sleepy heads; we've got a lot of ground to cover today," Alex announced, in a happy tone.

"You sound surprisingly happy; where's the gloomy and depressed Alex...and why are you still in your dragon form?" Nat asked, as he stood up.

"It's my choice what form I'm in, and since I belong in this form anyway, it's very appropriate," Alex snapped.

"Fine, but I feel a little outnumbered now," Nat complained, testing his hidden blades by flicking his wrist.

"Well I for one can't wait to get back to the temple, let's go," Iocus said, unfurling his wings and getting ready to fly.

"We're walking back to the temple, since I can't fly," Nat said.

"Err...no, you're walking, we're flying," Alex stated smugly.

"Hey, that's not fair, how am I going to find my way back to the temple?" he asked. Alex was about to change into his human form, but suddenly found it a lot harder to do. It took about a minute before he was able to transform.

"Ok, that was not good, anyway have a bag," Alex remarked, throwing the bag he carried in his human form to Nat.

"I've always wondered how everything you have on you in this form suddenly disappears in your dragon form," Nat remarked.

"Who knows, all I'm interested in is why it's harder to turn into a human...than it is to turn into a dragon," Alex said, quickly and easily transforming back into his dragon form, "anyway there should be a map of this world in there, you'll surely be able to find your way around back to the temple," he continued, turning to away from him.

"Now that that's taken care of, shall we?" Iocus muttered. They nodded and all three of them took off from the ground at the same time. Alex wasn't finding it too hard to fly, though that was because he had remembered how to do it from the particular vision.

"Hey wait, what happens if I get lost?" Nat called to them, as they flew off.

"Use your initiative," Fiore answered, before they were out of earshot.

"Some friends they turned out to be," Nat muttered, as he unfurled the map, and walked after them.

Alex meanwhile was having the time of his life as he soared gracefully through the air. Despite the twelve year gap from when he had last flown, he was flying perfectly well. He was making sure to fly near Fiore, and was periodically glancing at her. He admired how well she flew through the air. It was almost as if she wasn't doing anything as she soared effortlessly through the air. Of course this blissful moment had to come to an end when a bunch of dread wings came out of nowhere, and made a beeline for them.

"Blimey, I could really have done without them," he heard Iocus yell from his right.

"Well, I think this is a good time to see how good I am at aerial combat, I call the middle one," Alex exclaimed, diving towards the oncoming enemies.

"Oh no you don't, I call the middle one," Iocus yelled, grinning as he followed Alex.

Fiore rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered exasperatedly as she followed them, firing a few fire missiles at the dread wings on her right.

Alex waved from side to side as he effortlessly dodged the dread wing and its rider's attacks. He got bored of toying with it however, so he attacked it with his shadow fire breath, which caused it to fall to the ground after about a minute.

"Too easy," Alex exclaimed smugly. Sadly, like with anyone who gloats too soon, he was hit from behind by a sneak attack from the other dread wing. "Ok maybe I deserved that," he muttered as he fell through the air. He righted himself, and sped back up to it, only to find that Fiore and Iocus had finished it off.

"Well, that was fun," Fiore announced, panting slightly.

"Yes, now can we get back to going to the temple?" Iocus asked. All of them nodded, and they soon resumed the flight back to the temple.

It took a long time to get to the temple, due to the fact that they stopped briefly to catch some food.

It was about mid-day when they arrived at the temple. As they approached the ledge, Alex remembered what had happened the last time he had tried to land. This time though he had a fairly good idea about how he could land. Spreading his wings out, he glided down and touched down softly on the ground.

"That's the first time you've landed without crashing," Fiore joked behind him, as she landed.

"I know, don't remind me," Alex replied, smiling at her. Iocus landed next to them and the three of them made their way back into the temple.

"The temple sure looks different to how you described it to me," Iocus said, looking at Fiore.

"Well, that was six years after the last time I was there, so some of what I said was bound to be wrong," she replied defensively.

They entered the temple and found Spyro training with the ice guardian...who Alex vaguely remembered as Cyril. Before anyone could notice him, he turned back into his human form, though not without some difficulty.

"_Why is it suddenly becoming difficult for me to switch to this form?" he asked himself. _

"_Because you're slowly drifting away from your human side, and are becoming greatly in-tuned with your true side," Kumori answered. _

"_Really, well that's not good," he replied. _Before Kumori could reply, Cyril noticed the three of them standing in the doorway.

"Ah, it seems we have some guests," he remarked.

"I can only assume that you're Cyril?" Alex asked, walking to the side of the room.

"I am, I'm guessing that you've heard of me and my great family linage," he said, sounding very pompous.

"No, I only heard of you from Ignitus...though he said nothing about your ancestry," Alex muttered, sounding very uninterested. Fiore was struggling not to laugh at the expression on Cyril's face when he heard what Alex had said. "Of course, while I would want to learn about it all, there is something I have to discuss with Ignitus," Alex added, walking towards the door at the opposite end of the room.

"If you have something to say, then we are all going to hear it," Cyril snapped.

"Fine, I guess arguing isn't going to get anywhere," Alex sighed, walking through the door, followed by Fiore, Iocus and Spyro.

The door opened and Alex found Ignitus staring into the pool of Visions, whilst Volteer was busy in the library, obviously reading a dictionary for his long and complicated sentences. When Alex walked towards Ignitus, he looked up.

"Ah Alex, Fiore, you've returned I see, and with your brother no less," he said, looking between them.

"Hey, where are Nathaniel...and Shannon?" Spyro asked, whilst Sparx hovered near his head.

Alex looked away sadly. "She's dead...killed brutally by Cynder," he answered, glaring at the ground.

"And Nathaniel?" Ignitus asked.

"We sort of ditched him when we opted to fly back here," Iocus said, walking forwards.

"We?" Cyril asked as he walked in.

"Yea, all three of us, you see I've found out that I'm not actually half-dragon, as I originally thought..." Alex began, deciding that this was the best time for the great reveal. He concentrated, and in as the cloud of shadow appeared around him, he heard everyone one in the room gasp in surprise, aside from those who already knew about this. He briefly heard the scrabbling of feet.

"...but actually a dragon who grew up in this temple...and who disappeared twelve years ago," he continued darkly as the cloud of shadow dispersed. He smiled, as he opened his eyes, seeing Spyro and Sparx come out from behind Ignitus, looking rather shocked.

There was a pause for a moment. "I thought I recognised you when I saw your eyes," Ignitus realised.

"Yea, it's me, the lone black dragon that was loathed by everyone...except Fiore here," Alex said, smiling at Fiore, who blushed when everyone looked at her.

"You've no idea how happy I was when he first revealed this to me," Fiore sighed, before she realised that she had just implied a little too much, "I mean I was glad that he was ok after having disappeared," she hastily corrected herself, blushing deeply.

"Really, well how about you three explain what happened during your little adventure?" Ignitus said, giving Fiore a suspicious look.

"Alright...so we started off looking for..." Alex began to retell the story, though he left out everything that hinted at his and Fiore romantic affections, as well as who Cynder was. The guardians were suitably impressed with how Alex had fought during the mission. When Alex mentioned about fighting the figure from the mirror, Volteer had started blurting out something about it being impossible, before being silenced by Cyril. "The strange thing was that when it would land a hit on me, I felt as though my body was becoming weaker," Alex continued, looking down at his paw.

"...finally when Cynder was almost beaten, Shannon made a foolish move, which resulted in her being killed...I'd rather not say how, since we have children in the room," he looked over at Spyro and Sparx, before adding "and before I could take revenge, Cynder flew off."

There was a long silence. "Wow...sounds like you guys had fun," Sparx remarked, slightly in awe.

Alex sighed. "If it's all the same with you guys, I'd like to rest for a few minutes," he asked.

They all nodded, and they each went their separate way. Cyril took Spyro back to continue training with his element, whilst Volteer went back to the library. Alex and Fiore stayed in the room however, and when all the doors were closed, Alex spoke.

"There's some more that you might be interested in...Ignitus," he said darkly.

"Oh, and what might that be?" he asked.

Alex took a deep breath before he spoke again. "I know Cynder isn't the evil dragon that she appears to be, but is in fact...MY YOUNGER SISTER," he replied angrily, placing emphasis on the last words. Ignitus looked shocked at this news. "And I know that because I saw a vision of the raid on the temple...after all I was the one that chased after her," Alex continued, glaring at him.

"He found out that Cynder had been corrupted shortly thereafter, which is why she is now gigantic," Fiore added, standing close to Alex.

"So you've realised then, well I guess that I can't keep it from everyone...though I admit that the news of Cynder being your sister is a little surprising," Ignitus remarked.

"I guess it is...so why haven't you told him the truth," Alex asked suddenly, nodding at the door to where Spyro was turning. There was a very awkward silence, as Alex glared up at Ignitus, and Fiore sat looking worriedly at him.

"It's not the right time yet, he doesn't need to know..." Ignitus began, but was cut off by Alex.

"Of course he needs to know, he should know the truth about her. I mean do you really want him to kill her in cold blood without first letting him know that she is actually his age," Alex yelled in annoyance, causing Fiore to yelp and jump away from him.

"No I don't, but this is not the time; he needs to find it out by himself, and you are not to tell him," Ignitus told Alex firmly.

Alex was getting frustrated with Ignitus's stubbornness. "Why shouldn't I? I will not have him killing my sister just because you think it's necessary that he is ignorant of her plight," he snarled.

Fiore looked nervously up at Alex, surprised by his sudden anger. "But she won't die because Spyro's not strong enough yet," Ignitus reasoned.

"If me and Fiore can defeat her, then I'm sure he can as well, besides he has more than enough elemental power to beat her even at this stage of his training," Alex replied angrily. There was an even longer awkward silence. "You know what, I don't care...let him do what he wants...it's not as if it matters," Alex yelled, storming off into the sleeping quarter area.

"Alex," Fiore exclaimed, running after him. She found him in his old room, which he had found through obviously remembering it. He was facing away from her on his bed, looking out of a window. She walked over to him, standing so that she was behind him. "Alex," she said weakly.

He turned his head and looked back at her, his eyes displaying sorrow. "I'm sorry for the outburst...he doesn't understand how I feel," he muttered sadly.

Fiore leaped up onto the bed and sat down close to him. "I know what you're feeling, the fear of losing a family member, I've felt it too," she sighed, thinking back to the time her brother had been captured.

"Yea, that's why I feel comfortable talking about this with you...my love," Alex smiled briefly at her as he lay down on the bead. She smiled as well and laid her head on his chest.

"We should stop thinking about her for the moment, right now we have time alone to ourselves," she said softly, closing her eyes, listening to the rhythm of his heart beats.

"Good plan," Alex replied, kissing her forehead and entwining his tail with hers. She giggled when he did this and shuffled closer to him. Alex instinctively placed his wing around her when she moved and used it to pull her even closer to him. Fiore purred when she felt the warmth of his body on her own. She lifted her head up and looked directly into his eyes.

"I love you," she whispered, before she kissed him.

Meanwhile back in the forest, Nat was still wandering around the forest, apparently lost.

"Some help this map was, I have no idea where I even started from," he complained. After a few minutes however, he came across a mountain with a cave in it not unlike the one that they had found Shannon in.

"Well, this might just be interesting, I wonder what I can find in this place," he wondered, as he walked into the cave.

The cave went on for a while, until he came to a large area. It looked like a large open room that he had walked into, and in the centre of this room was a gigantic ice structure. This ice structure wasn't Identifiable, but behind it was a large door. There was something behind there, that Nat knew was very powerful, and could help him greatly. He also noticed that around the room was ice and he suddenly felt a lot colder.

"Blimey, why does this look like it's from DMC 3?" he asked, looking around. Suddenly the ice sculpture began to shudder and large chunks fell off it, revealing a large white wolf. The wolf seemed to have two heads, and the one on its right looked female, whilst the one on the left looked like a male._ "JESUS CHRIST! this is the literal meaning of transsexual," _he thought, as he looked up at the wolf.

The female head turned to look at the male head. "Look brother, it has been ages but we finally have company," it announced happily, its voice echoing slightly as it spoke in a female voice.

The male head looked at the female one. "I see that...we have to entertain our guest," it smiled, its voice echoing the same way, but sounding more masculine.

"You're right...we have to be gracious hosts," the female one replied excitedly.

Nat looked bored now as he looked up at the heads. "Umm...what should we do?" the male head asked, its smile fading.

"How should I know...we need to think of something!" the female one told the other head.

Nat was pacing up and down at this point. He let out an exasperated sigh before he continued his pacing. The two heads stopped talking and looked down at him.

"Brother...our guest is...SIGHING," the female head muttered in disbelief.

The male head looked back at the female head, with a confused expression on its face. "SIGH...what is...SIGH?" it asked in a confused tone, whilst Nat kept pacing.

"Well a sigh is when...," the female head began, before it was interrupted by Nat, who had enough of their conversation.

"ENOUGH ALL READY," he exclaimed, as he stopped pacing up and down the room. Both heads snapped back to looking at him, as he continued. "How long are you two going to keep going on like this," both heads were looking angry now, "if you couldn't tell, let me spell it out for you...your GUEST..." he began, pointing at himself, "wants to go through," he pointed behind the wolf, "GOT IT," he finished, glaring up at them.

The wolf growled as it walked slowly forward, before it roared and reared up, sending the ice chunks flying at Nat. Before he could react, a large ice chunk hit him in the face, sending him flying back into the wall. (Cerberus battle theme from DMC 3 plays in the background) The wolf looked down at Nat, and growled at him.

"Our job here is to guard this door...," the male head began.

"That's right...we cannot let you pass...for your own safety," the female head finished.

"_For my own safety, I somehow doubt that," _Nat thought confidently, as he wiped out his two hand guns. He had decided to call them Obsidian and Opal for an unknown reason. Just as he did, the wolf roared and ice materialized all over its body, protecting it from any sort of attack. "Ok, now what," he wondered out loud.

He began by shooting the ice on both heads, using both guns to attack both separately. This seemed to work, as the ice shattered easily. Nat then leaped up into the air, trying to slash at the exposed heads. Instead however, the large wolf hit him back down to the ground with its paw.

"Ow, maybe I should think this through," he said, getting back on to his feet.

He barely had enough time to dodge out of the way as the wolf slammed its paw down on the ground near him. Where it had done this, ice shards formed and shot out at all angles. He somehow managed to either dodge or destroy the ice shards with his short swords.

"_Ok this isn't working, I'll have to try something different," _he thought.

He quickly shot the ice off the wolfs paws, giving him an opening to get close. He dashed towards the wolf and used his short swords to nail the wolf's paws to the ground. When he did this, it let out a howl of rage and fell to the ground. He wiped out his hidden blade, and began slashing away at the wolf's head. After five slashes, the wolf howled, opened the mouth of its male head, and fired a jet of ice at Nat, who was hit by the full force, and was frozen in place.

"_Great, just my luck, this...demon works on boss battle logic," _he thought to himself, as he unfroze himself...somehow.

The wolf reared up and freed its paws, and then slammed them onto the ground. Instead of Ice forming from its paws, ice shards sprang up from under Nat, which he didn't expect. He was flung a good distance into the air, and was then promptly hit by the wolf again, sending him flying back into the wall.

He slumped against the wall, blood seeping out of many cuts and wounds. "Ha...maybe I'm not invincible after all," he muttered weakly. _"I guess I'm just meant to fall like everyone else," _he thought sadly, as he tried to stand up.

Behind the wolf, the large door suddenly glowed. The wolf turned both its heads to look at the door.

"Well that's interesting...isn't it ,sister?" the male head announced, looking back at the female head.

"Yes it is, perhaps this mortal is worthy of one of the blades," the female one replied, sounding intrigued. The wolf raised a paw, which glowed blue briefly. The door suddenly opened, revealing a large number of weapons, each varying from spears, to long swords...and even bows. One of the broad swords was glowing. This sword's blade looked very sharp, in fact the entire sword looked sharp, even the blunt edge of the hand.

The sword had a brief ice effect play around the handle, before it suddenly flew into the air, and flew towards Nat. He had at this point stood up, but the sword impaled him through the heart, effectively killing him. His body was pinned to the ground.

"Oh bugger, this is new," the female head announced, as the wolf retreated back in front of the door, which was now closed.

"Well, saves us a job" the male wolf said, almost disappointed.

(Dante get's Alastor, theme plays) However, Nat wasn't dead, because he suddenly heard a voice in his head, which was surprisingly female (I'm going to say now...all the magical swords are going to have female voices).

"_This is all an illusion...free yourself from me if you have the strength to survive me," _it said, sounding expectant.

Nat felt compelled, almost controlled as he lifted his legs up, planted them on the ground, and began to lift himself off the sword. The pain was excruciating, but strangely there wasn't any blood at all. He paused at the sword handle, feeling a powerful force in his way. Not wanting to die, he pushed his body up with all his might, feeling the resistance of the force meeting him. He managed to pull himself completely off the sword.

He fell forward thanks to his momentum, but managed to stay on his feet. His upper body slumped forward, but he leaned it up as he put his hand out in front of him. He quickly swung round and grabbed the sword hilt. Ice enveloped his body as he lifted the sword off the ground and held it in the air. The ice didn't seem to affect him, but as he was about to dramatically swing the sword...he fell to his knees.

"_Ok, maybe I went a bit too far," _he thought to himself, using the sword to prop himself off the ground.

"_Yea, considering how much you've been trounced today," _the voice replied, sounding amused.

Nat looked at the sword. "What the hell! Who's in my head?" he screamed out loud.

" _I am...you got a problem with that?" _the sword replied, sounding annoyed.

"No...Not at all, I think it's rather cool," he replied quickly.

"_Good, and I'd rather we talk through our minds, not out loud," _the sword said.

"Umm, how the hell do I do that?" he asked, having no idea that he could just think the words in his head.

"_Try thinking about what you're going to say, but not actually saying it," _the sword tried, sounding even more annoyed.

"Err...what?" he asked, sounding confused.

The sword sighed in exasperation. _"Just think of something, I can read your thoughts anyway," _the sword yelled.

"Well, stay out of my memories and possibly some of my thoughts!"

"_I'm going to pretend I don't know what you mean by that," _it replied.

"Well it looks like you've passed our test and gained the weapon you came for, now you must leave," the male head of the wolf said.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" he exclaimed.

"Is there a problem?" the female head asked.

"YES, do you have any form of grappling hook in there?" he asked hopefully.

"No! What do you think this place is...a shop!" the male head barked.

"Aawwww... come on, I'll fight you again for it," he pleaded.

"NOOOO," both heads yelled at the same time.

"Fine...I'm leaving," he pouted, turning to leave.

"One last thing though before you leave," the female head began.

"What now," Nat yelled, turning back to face them.

"Please can you bring some people back here...we've been alone for 1000 years," the female head asked, giving Nat a puppy eye stare.

Ok...but on one condition," he said, smiling.

"What is it?" the male head asked.

"Access to that room with all the awesome weapons," he demanded.

"We can't do that, the ancient laws that bind us here's prevent us from doing that...no matter how much we have tried in the past," the female head replied.

"SCREW THE AINCIENT LAWS! I have a broad sword that speaks in my head!" he yelled.

"_Nathaniel...just walk away slowly, no sudden movements," _the sword warned him.

"WHY," he asked.

The wolf raised a paw, which glowed white.

"Oh...Bugg-rrrrrrraaaaahhhh," Nat exclaimed as he was teleported away.

The wolf lay down and sighed. "Well that was an amusing encounter," the male voice said. The female one chuckled.

Nat meanwhile had been teleported all the way back to the temple...conveniently! Sadly he wasn't used to teleportation...so he was gifted with his lunch again...though not the way he wanted it.

"That...was...dreadful, I am never teleporting again," he spluttered, wiping the sick off his mouth.

"About time you got here," a voice called, causing Nat to practically have a heart attack. He spun around, drawing his sword as he did so. His sword collided with another, which looked rather familiar.

"Your form is lacking," the voice said. Before Nat could react, his sword had been knocked out of his hand, and the opponent was now pointing his own sword at him. The opponent walked into the light (it was night time at this point), revealing it to be Alex.

"What the hell... you made me drop my awesome sword whose name I don't even know yet." Nat yelled.

"_For your information my name is Vesica,"_ his sword muttered as he picked it up off the ground.

Alex chuckled. "I see you found a weapon that can talk, nice," he said, smiling at Nat's surprised expression.

"Wait...you heard that?" he asked.

"Yep, I did, which means that magic weapon wielders can hear other wielders' conversations...though I think there's more to it than that...eh, Kumori?" Alex replied, smiling down at his sword.

"_True, you see me and Vesica go back a long way,"_ she replied.

"_She's right, of course it's been so long since I last saw you...older sister," _Vesica added happily.

**Yea I know, that was out of nowhere wasn't it. The wolf battle is basically like the Cerberus battle from DMC 3, in fact most of what Nat did was off DMC. Anyway please read and review this chapter. I'll get on with writing the next one soon.**


	14. Training

**Hi everyone, I'm back with the next chapter. This chapter...well I'll just let you read it shall I. On with the story...**

**Chapter 13: Training**

"OLDER SISTER...WHAT IN THE NAME OF...," Nat exclaimed, as he looked down at his sword.

"You might want to explain how that's possible, at least before Nathaniel's voice goes," Alex smiled down at Kumori. Vesica giggled.

"_You're funny," _she said, obviously having taken a liking to Alex already.

"_Yes he is, but to say bluntly, me and my younger sister were once living beings, but were transformed into these weapons, and we have been like this for two thousand years," _Kumori explained, a hint of sadness entering her voice as she finished.

"_During that time we were collected by a being known as __Berhtulf," Vesica began._

"Wait, did that happen to be the giant, two-headed ice wolf that beat me?" Nat asked, his eyes widening.

"_The very same," _Kumori answered.

"_As I was saying, we were collected by 'it', and stored behind a special door which stopped us from escaping," _Vesica continued.

"_Berhtulf told us that as mystical weapons, we would need to choose someone for us to wield if we wanted to be free," _Kumori added.

"So then I'm guessing you chose to be wielded by an ape," Alex guessed, realising what might have happened. If Kumori had a body, she would have shaken her head at this.

"_No... Actually I was stolen from there by an army of apes, all of whom tried to control me, with varying degrees of success and failure," _Kumori corrected him.

Something about hearing this made Alex angry. "They stole you and then tried to control you? How dare they...they are not worthy of your power and beauty," Alex growled, clenching his fist as his eyes glowed red.

Everyone was surprised by this outburst, but Kumori was the shocked to hear that he considered her beautiful...her, who was nothing more than a weapon that had a spirit trapped inside it.

"Whoa, calm down, Alex, they're just mindless creatures; we've probably killed them all by now...wait did you call her beautiful?" Nat asked, looking at Alex suspiciously.

"Yes I did say that...and why shouldn't the controller of a sword consider it beautiful, I mean it's true...there isn't another sword that has a blade quite as sharp as hers," Alex replied angrily, looking down at her.

Kumorisighed happily, though she made sure Alex didn't hear it. _"So he cares about me then...I've picked the right one to control me it seems," _she thought, feeling as though a great weight was off her now.

"One thing I wouldn't use to describe a sword is the word beautiful," Nat replied, as he placed Vesica on his back. The sword stayed where it was, apparently being held by something invisible.

Alex glared at him and sheathed Kumori. _"Thank you, Alex...I'm glad you think I'm beautiful," _she soothed.

"_No problem...But I guess that it's something that you've heard a lot though," _Alex replied, blushing ever so slightly.

"_Actually you're the first to say that...in fact you're the first person to actually respect me as more than just a weapon," _she replied, in a tone that suggested that she was crying.

"_Oh...right...I'm sorry," _he apologised quickly.

"_It's nothing to be sorry about...I'm glad that I chose you now..." _Kumori replied. She paused, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't bring up the courage to actually say it out loud.

There was a long silence.

"Anyway we should get back inside, I'd like to have some sleep," Alex announced. Nat nodded and the y both walked back into the temple. They turned a corner and found Fiore waiting for them.

"I see that you've finally arrived then," she remarked coolly, looking at Nat.

"I would have arrived sooner if you lot hadn't ditched me," he complained.

"Oh, stop moaning, besides you got a magic sword from your little adventure," Alex smiled, walking over to Fiore.

"Yea but I also saw my lunch again, which doesn't make up for it," Nat continued to complain as they walked back to their rooms. When they reached Fiore's room, Alex transformed back into his dragon form.

"Well now, I'd like to get some sleep, if you don't mind," he said, opening the door to the room. Fiore walked into the room, followed shortly by Alex. Nat stared at them for a moment, before shaking his head and walking off.

"The more I see them like that, the more I think they have had sex with each other," Nat muttered as he entered his own room. Despite what Nat thought, Alex and Fiore weren't interested in 'mating' at this point in time, since they had both fallen asleep next to each other.

While they slept, they both had the exact same dream. In it they were both standing next to each other in a white realm. They both looked at each other, admiring how the whiteness seemed to reflect off their scales, making them seem even more beautiful than normal.

"You look divine," Alex said to Fiore, who smiled.

"Thanks, but then again you always look divine," she flirted, causing him to smile and lick her face.

"_Enjoying yourselves, are you?" _Kumori's voice said suddenly, startling both of them. They both looked around, trying to see where she was. Alex noticed that a sword was lying point down in front of him. He moved forward and touched it, knowing that it was Kumori.

"Of course, I mean what better dream is there than one which involves your love?" Alex smiled at Fiore, who sighed happily as she walked over to him.

"_Quite, but I've actually called you here to tell you something," _Kumori replied.

"Which is?" Alex asked.

"_Well, for some reason you can no longer slow down time when using me, instead you can teleport short distances,"_ she answered.

"I'm not sure whether that's good or bad," he replied.

"_Well, for a start, teleporting doesn't use constant energy and you can actually teleport into the air, towards your enemies, or below and behind where you originally were," _she added.

"Nice...but why did you bring Fiore here?" Alex asked.

"_Well...partially because I thought you'd like to be somewhere enjoyable for this," _she answered, though Alex guessed that it wasn't actually her that had done so.

"Right...anything else?" he asked her.

"_Well, there is one thing...when you awaken...can you ask Nat to fight you with his own sword against you and myself, it's just I'm eager to see what my sister can do when being controlled by a half demon," _Kumori explained.

"Sure why not," Alex replied. The dream dissolved into blackness.

The next thing Alex knew was that he was lying on a soft bed, with Fiore next to him. He raised his head to look at her. He loved how peaceful she looked when she was asleep. As he watched her chest rise and fall, he felt his eyes slowly drifting towards the back legs. He quickly averted his gaze away from that area when he felt her shift slightly. She opened her eyes and looked at him, smiling as she saw his face.

"Morning," she said sleepily.

"Glad to see you're awake; I was worried I'd have to interrupt a nice dream of yours by waking you," Alex joked.

"I wouldn't have minded, after all I love being with you," she whispered, licking his face. He smiled at her, before kissing her briefly.

"Well, while I'd absolutely love to remain with you here in this comfy place...I think we should get up," he muttered.

Fiore reluctantly agreed and they both leaped of the bed. Before they left the room however, Fiore decided to entwine her tail with Alex's. He looked questioningly at her.

"Sorry, I just wanted to feel close to you," she apologized, though when she tried to unwind her tail from his, he made sure that they stayed together.

"If that's the reason then I'm not complaining; truth be told I like the feeling of your tail on mine, particularly if we are _close_ to each other," he told her, placing emphasis on the word, smiling at her whilst he did this.

She giggled when he did that and kissed him, before they both walked out of her room. They walked towards the training room. When Alex asked why, Fiore responded by saying, "If we are going to save Cynder, then we are going to have to get better at fighting."

They entered the training room, and almost as if it could sense their intentions, the statue slid down below them.

"Good idea...so what do you have in mind?" Alex asked, as the floor joined back together again.

Fiore smiled evilly for a moment. "Since no one else is up yet, I thought that we'd both practice fighting each other," she remarked, not hiding her eagerness.

Alex chucked. "You can never seem to find a way of keeping your paws off me now, can you?" he smiled, taking his place in the ring. Fiore blushed briefly, but smiled normally as she took her place opposite him.

"Let's see what you can do," Fiore challenged Alex.

Alex stared the training off by leaping towards her, making her think he was trying to hit her from the air. As she prepared for that sort of attack, Alex landed on the ground in front of her and gave a quick, but slightly gentle, upper cut to her face. She gave a small yelp, though it was more out of surprise than any sort of pain.

"Not bad, Alex; I guess you still are as good as when we used to play-fight with each other," she smiled.

"I guess, but I'd like to see what you're capable of," he replied, raising his eye brows up and down challengingly.

Fiore responded by running directly at him and attempting to tackle him to the ground. Alex didn't want to give her the chance however, as he rolled to the side, avoiding her attack. She had somehow anticipated this, because she suddenly leaped at him. He wasn't expecting this, so he didn't have time to dodge. She collided with him, forcing him off his feet and onto his back. She quickly pinned him to the ground and placed her paw on his chest.

"And just like that...I win," she remarked smugly.

"Oh, you haven't won...you've just sacrificed sturdy footing for a killing blow," Alex replied just as smugly. She looked at him, puzzled as to what he meant. Alex smiled, as he placed his leg to the side of hers, and moved it quickly to the side...effectively knocking her off her own feet. She landed on her back and Alex wasted no time in leaping up. He looked down at her, as he positioned himself so that he was pinning her to the ground...but in a way that prevented her from tripping him up.

"I think that means I win," he added smugly, leaning his head closer to hers and licking her face. She giggled slightly, but blushed because of how Alex's body was in relation to her body. She moved her head up and kissed him, feeling ever so slightly aroused by the situation. Alex closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, enjoying it completely.

"Blimey, couldn't you two have done that in a room instead of out in the open?" Nat's voice echoed from the door way. Out of shock, Alex leaped off Fiore, who leapt up as well. Both of them were blushing deeply at having been caught...though thanks to her red scales it was hard to see Fiore blushing.

"Nathaniel, we weren't doing anything besides training...and kissing," Alex muttered, knowing it was pointless to deny anything.

"Sure you weren't...you know each day you get weirder and weirder, Alex," Nat replied, folding his arms.

"I'm hardly getting weird...what wrong with loving someone and showing it?" Alex asked, his temper rising.

"Nothing's wrong with loving someone...it's just the part about loving a dragon when you're human," Nat replied.

"I'M NOT HUMAN!" Alex exclaimed, glaring at Nat. "I'm a dragon...born and bred as I've told you," he continued angrily.

"Technically you're half- dragon / half-human, so it doesn't count," Nat added.

"So...half breeds can still love a member of the same species as one of their halves," Alex growled.

"Whatever...do you think that you can go back to your human form...I want to get better at fighting," Nat asked.

"Fine...but since both swords are here, how about we see what they can do?" Alex remarked, turning into his human form. Both Nat and Fiorenoticed that Alex's skin was no longer skin, but was instead scaly, like his dragon form.

"Seems you're becoming like your real form then," Fiore muttered.

"Real form?" he asked, turning to stare at her with a raised eye brow.

"I-I mean your dragon form," she corrected herself, but blushing greatly.

Alex smiled at her, before he turned back to face Nat.

"Sure...I was itching to see what I can do with this sword anyway," Nat announced happily, drawing Vesica from off his back. Alex in turn unsheathed Kumori, and instantly felt that she was rather eager to begin the fight.

"_It's been years since I've fought you, younger sister," _she said, her voice showing her eagerness.

"_Yes, let's see what we are capable of in the hands of these two," _Vesica muttered just as eagerly.

Alex prepared for Nat's attack, which was actually rather obvious what he was going to do. He brandished his sword in front of him and charged at Alex. He attempted to horizontally slash Alex, but was stopped by Alex who blocked the attack with one half of Kumori. He used the other half to slash at Nat's side. Since Nat wasn't expecting the attack, his leg was hit when he tried to dodge. He sprang back away from Alex.

"_Hey, is there anything I can do with you that involves a magic attack?" _Nat asked Vesica.

"_Since I'm an ice sword, there are a bunch of attacks you can do," _she replied.

"_Like...?" _he persisted.

"_Try stabbing me into the ground in front of you, though only when you've changed some of your power into me first," _she suggested.

"_How do I channel my power into you? I have as yet no power to channel," _he replied, sounding a little annoyed. He had become too focused on his conversation with his sword, so that he wasn't watching Alex at all.

Alex sighed. "You know, I'm beginning to think it was a waste of time training with him," he muttered, walking out of the training wing and standing at the side. He sheathed Kumori and leant against the wall.

"_I pity my sister, she's chosen someone who, whilst he might be powerful, has no idea how to use said power," _Kumori remarked. Alex chuckled. Fiore walked over to him, whilst looking at Nat, who seemed to have stopped talking to his sword in his head and was now yelling at it. Alex smiled and stroked her head with his hand. She purred and leaned her head towards his hand.

After a while Alex got bored and decided to break up Nat's argument. "Alright, Nathaniel , we get the point, now are you going to resume our fight, or what?" he asked. Nat stopped yelling and looked at him.

"Err, you know what, I'll just try fighting some dummies, I want to find out what I can do with my sword," he muttered.

"Yea, you do that," Alex said, walking back over to Fiore. "I can only assume that this works by thinking of what you want to fight," he continued.

Almost immediately a bunch of Apes appeared around Nat and ran at him. Out of shock, Nat swung his sword down onto the ground, slicing one of the dummies in half. From where his blade had touched the ground a few medium-sized ice shards appeared, impaling a few of the dummies.

"Cool, so that's how you do that then," he remarked, repeating the same thing for the other dummies. When he had finished however, he felt rather drained. "Ok, I can only assume that this is because that attack uses too much of my energy," he muttered, kneeling down on the ground.

"_Yea, I'd sit out for a while and let Alex show us what he can do," _Vesica added.

Alex stood up and took the centre of the ring. "Time to see what I can do before I'm out of energy," he muttered.

"_Alex, during the time you've been in your dragon form, I've been looking at that amulet you picked up," _Kumori began, as Alex drew her and slashed at a few dummies.

"_Really...anything interesting that I should know of?" _he asked her, as he kept fighting. Nat caught wind of the conversation and began listening intently.

"_Well, it seems that this amulet has some magic properties about it, one of which allows you to..." _Kumori began; before she spoke at a level Nat couldn't hear. Apparently this was intentional so that only Alex would hear it.

"_Nice, seems that I can do some cool things now," _Alex remarked eagerly.

"_That you can, but I think you should save them for when Nat has a go at fighting you," _Kumori added.

Alex nodded and got back to fighting the dummies. He had learnt how to use Kumori as effectively as possible, to such an extent that none of the dummies got close to even touching him.

Eventually Alex got bored...again, so he exited the ring. As he did so, Nat walked up to him.

"I'm ready to resume the fight," he said plainly.

"About time," Alex replied, walking to the opposite end of the ring. Nat did the same and they both faced each other.

"I hope you can put up a good fight this time and not back out," Alex taunted him.

"Oh I won't, this time I know how to control the power of this sword," Nat replied, drawing Vesica.

Alex said nothing, but unsheathed Kumori with his thumb.

DMC 3 Vergil battle 1 soundtrack starts playing in the background. Nat noticed that music was playing and looked around trying to find the source. "Hey where's that music coming from?" he asked.

"_Oh sorry, I forgot to mention that when we get as excited as this, or whenever we are about to fight something powerful, music starts to play," _Vesica answered.

"_It's only if there is a suitable theme that one of you has heard before though," _Kumori added.

"Awesome...but it does make me feel like this world is just a video game," Nat remarked.

"Don't ask," Alex quickly told Fiore, who looked confused.

As the main part of the soundtrack began to play, they both walked towards each other. When they were level, Alex did a rapid slash at Nat, who this time dodged it. He retaliated by attempting to hit Alex like before and Alex blocked it again. Nat jumped back from him.

"Time to show you something that I've learnt in the last few minutes," Nat muttered, as his sword began to charge up.

He suddenly pulled his sword back and then did an upward slash at Alex...even though he was some metres away. From the sword however, ice shards erupted and flew towards Alex. Alex quickly blocked a few of the shards and slashed at the others, and somehow managed to destroy them all. Alex had barely finished off the attack however, before Nat had sent a second one at him. This time Kumori intervened. She somehow moved the hand that was holding her and they spun round very quickly. This action actually stopped any of the ice shards from hitting Alex. When they were all destroyed, Alex regained control of his hand.

"_Thanks, Kumori, that was rather helpful," _he complemented her.

"_No problem...as a sword it is my duty to protect my 'master'," _she replied happily, saying 'master' with a great deal of pleasure.

Alex smiled at this, picking up on the emotion she had shown. He glanced back at Nat and smirked as he saw that he looked rather frustrated.

"Ok...that might have...been cool...but why...do you have...do that?" Nat asked, breathing heavily as he recovered his energy.

"Well, it's either that or become a pin cushion," Alex joked, sheathing Kumori.

This time Alex was the one to attack. He ran at Nat and rapidly unsheathed his sword, which Nat only just managed to block. Alex then quickly split the sword in two and made a few shadow slashes at Nat. He was overcome by the force of these attacks and was knocked onto the floor. Alex stood over him, pointing his sword at his head.

Without thinking, Nat stabbed his sword into the ground with enough force to create a huge ice shard which encased Alex completely. Nat got up slowly, as Fiore screamed in fear of what he had just done.

"Not bad, Nathaniel... Not bad at all," Alex's voice came from the ice, though slightly muffled. "But don't think that I'm beaten just yet," he added.

Several cracks appeared rapidly in the ice and, in about two seconds, the Ice suddenly broke apart violently. From the centre Alex appeared in his dragon form. Unsurprisingly Nat wasn't happy.

"Hey that's cheating...you can't change forms during a battle," he glared.

"I think I just did," Alex replied, turning back into his human form.

Nat continued to glare at him as he gripped his sword. He swung his sword back and then threw it at Alex. The sword actually spun through the air towards Alex, who rolled out of the way. Unfortunately it seemed that the sword was infused with some power, because instead of flying into the wall, it moved and headed towards Alex...still spinning in the air. He dodged to the side again, and again the sword followed him.

"That's a nice move, Nathaniel...though rather annoying," Alex muttered as he rolled out of the way for the third time. This time the sword flew back to Nat's hand.

"I don't see it as annoying, I think it's rather cool...I think I'll name it Round Trip...because it spins round you," Nat announced, laughing at his own genius...or lack thereof, as Alex thought.

"Right...now back to the fight," Alex said, sheathing Kumori.

As Alex prepared to attack Nat, he decided to do 'Round Trip' again...being the sort of person who loves to spam the same move over and over again.

"Oh great, so your spamming that move now are you!" Alex yelled, rolling out of the way again as Nat casually walked towards him, trying to look awesome...and failing.

"Why not, it stops you from hitting me," Nat gloated, as he watched Alex roll a second time.

As the sword flew toward Alex however, he grinned. Suddenly a sword appeared out of nowhere, and flew at Nat's sword. They hit each other in mid-air, causing Nat's sword to stop spinning and f ly back towards him. As Nat caught his sword, he looked questioningly at Alex.

"Ok, what just happened?" he asked.

"This is what happened," Alex answered. Suddenly another broadsword identical to the other one- which had disappeared at this point- appeared near Alex...then shot towards Nat. Nat dodged out of the way of it, but only just as it hit the wall where he had been. He noticed that the sword looked rather like a medium-sized broadsword in length, although it had a light green-blue/spectral look to it...as if it came for the world of the dead.

"Wow...how on earth did you do that?" he asked, turning back to face Alex.

"Simple...this amulet..."Alex began, gesturing to the black amulet round his neck, "allows me to call forth these swords from some parts unknown..." he noticed Nat's confused expression, so he added "in other words I can summon swords with this, Amulet."

"Cool...can I have that amulet?" Nat asked hopefully.

"No, this amulet is mine...after all, that figure dropped it when he went, so he obviously wanted me to have it," Alex joked, tapping the amulet once to prove his point.

"Damn it," Nat exclaimed, running towards Alex, brandishing his sword in front of him.

"Fool," Alex remarked simply, not bothering to move. When Nat was about to hit him... about ten swords that looked identical to the other summoned swords appeared around Alex. Nat managed to stop before he was hit by the blades as they spun around Alex's body.

"Wow...that could have been nasty," Nat exclaimed, as he jumped back away from Alex.

"Indeed...so how fast can you move, I wonder?" Alex rhetorically asked him, motioning at him with his right hand...as if he knew what was going to happen.

Suddenly all of the summoned swords disappeared from around Alex, and materialized above his head. They were all arranged in a triangle formation and were all pointing at Nat. A second later the swords all fired at him one after the other. He managed to dodge the first two, but was hit by the rest...and literally impaled to the wall. Somehow none of the swords had pierced anything vital, only nailing his arms and legs to the wall...there by stooping him from moving.

"Ow...it's a good job that I'm half-demon or else I could have been seriously injured," he remarked, as the swords suddenly shattered into shards of what looked like glass...which also disappeared leaving no trace that they'd ever existed.

"Yes...but it's also good for practicing killing blows if you can't die...though I doubt you could survive everything I did to you," Alex remarked.

"You're probably right," he agreed, walking gingerly over to Alex.

"Well well...what was rather impressive," a voice said from across the room.

All three of them looked over to see Spyro, Ignitus and Cyril standing at the doorway, all of them looking rather interested.

"Err...hi...how long have you been there for?" Alex asked sheathing Kumori ,as Nat placed his own sword on his back.

"As soon as you two started fighting," Ignitus answered.

"I must say you two have a rather interesting fighting style...but I'm more interested as to how you can use ice?" Cyril asked Nat.

"I'd have thought it rather obvious...but this sword I have has a natural ability to use ice," Nat explained, tapping Vesica's hilt as he did.

"Really...that is fascinating," Volteer's voice suddenly came from behind them.

"And the whole me being able to summon swords thing isn't?" Alex asked, sounding perfectly calm.

"Of course that is...though it does also raise a lot of questions; what we've seen, I mean," Ignitus replied.

"Regardless, I'm guessing you wanted us for something," Fiore said, walking over and standing next to Alex.

"True...but this isn't the best place to discuss it," Ignitus replied. They followed him and the rest of the group into the pool of visions room. Alex transformed into his dragon form when he entered the room, since he'd grown to like it more than his human form. When they entered, the guardians all took the places around the room, whilst Spyro sat down between Ignitus and Volteer.

"So what's up?" Nat remarked, as he stood to the side.

"I have located Terrador, the earth guardian. He is at munitions forge," Ignitus replied.

"So you're once again going to send Spyroout there alone with his dragonfly brother, are you?" Alex stated more than he asked.

Ignitus shook his head. "Not exactly alone this time...I thought I'd send you and Nat along with him, since both of you seem very capable at fighting," Ignitus replied.

"If Alex's is going somewhere then I'm going too...I mean..." Fiore began, blushing when everyone looked at her.

"Yes, I thought you'd say that, and I realise that it's pointless trying to persuade you otherwise...Iocus however is going to remain here where it's safe," Ignitus cut in, making it plain that Iocus had already had this conversation with him.

"Alright then, whenever you're ready, Spyro, then we'll go," Alex announced eagerly.

"Hold on...I can't fly, so how am I going to get there?" Nat asked.

"Since you're half-demon, all you really need to do build up power and release at a point somewhere, causing you to change appearance, which should allow you to fly," Volteer was the one to answer his question, though not very clearly.

"Err...pardon?" Nat said, looking rather confused.

"In other words you need to 'Devil Trigger'," Alex translated for him.

"Devil Trigger...that's a good term for it, I must write it down," Volteer remarked excitedly.

"That's all well and good, but how do I actually 'Devil Trigger'?" Nat asked.

"I believe that will rely with Vesica, since you're obviously not born from a powerful demon," Alex taunted.

As if waiting for this, Vesica suddenly enveloped Nat in a cloud of white snow. When it cleared, he looked rather like what he normally looked like...except his body now had an ice-like lookabout it and had several blue markings all along it. His face was rather indistinguishable; in fact he basically looked like a blue ice sculpture.

"_Ok...now what?"_ he asked, his voice deepening and sounding demonic.

"Now you should be able to fly...if you can stay in that form for long enough that is," Alex remarked, as Nat's 'Devil Trigger' ended and he turned back into his normal form.

"I think it'll take a few goes at it before I can hold it for long," he said, collapsing onto his knees.

"Oh well, looks like you'll have to wait before you can follow us there," Fioregloated happily, something which surprised Alex.

"Damn, well don't kill everything before I get there, ok?" he said, staggering to his feet.

"I'm not making any promises," Alex remarked as he walked off with Fiore, Spyro and Sparx. He looked back at Ignitus, who gave him a _'Don't tell him'_ look. Alex rolled his eyes as he passed through the doorway.

As they walked out onto the ledge Alex looked up at the sky briefly, before they all took flight.

"Alright, Spyro, you lead the way since Ignitus told you where to go," he heard Fiore call.

As they flew towards an ocean, Alex looked over at Fiore and found her staring at him. She smiled and looked back in front of her. He smiled as well as they flew, unaware of what was going to happen at the 'forge'...

**Well that's interesting, I wonder what could happen. The next chapter may take time, because I'll have to remember what happens at munitions forge. Anyway please read and review this chapter, I'd like to know what you all think. Until I Update next time, bye...**


	15. Munitions Forge

**Hi everyone, sorry for the large gap in updating, blame exams. This chapter has a slightly unexpected twist in it. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 14: Munitions forge**

A few hours of flying had passed before Alex, Spyro and Fiore saw the landmark that was Munitions Forge. As they approached it, Alex suddenly had a bad feeling about what they were going into.

"_Something tells me that we are going to run into a lot of trouble on this mission," _he thought.

"_Don't be so negative, Alex, it's not good for you, if you are," _Kumori said inside his mind.

He smiled when he heard her voice. _"In my experience, it's better to think you'll fail, that way you're not shocked when you do," _he told her.

"_Now is that really the attitude you want to take when you finally try to save Cynder from the darkness?" _she asked.

"_No...Don't remind me about it now," _he told her.

"_Oh sorry, Alex," _she apologized.

When they finally landed on the ground, it was well into the evening. The amount of light didn't really help the surroundings much. As far as Alex could tell, they were on an island next to an unstable volcano. Spyro looked up at the Volcano in question.

"Boy is it big!" he exclaimed.

"Yea...whoever named it must have been a really funny guy to call a Volcano, 'Boyzitbig'!" Fiore remarked jokingly.

"It gets worse since the population of this place are called, 'Manweresmalls', but I think we should be tactful when we meet them," Alex added, having chosen to remain in his dragon form.

"Good idea...anyway there's no sense in waiting around," Spyro said, walking forwards.

Sparx despaired for some reason, but before they could ask him why, a bunch of yellow-furred apes appeared from a doorway through a section of stone.

"Well well...looks like being stealthy has just become an impossibility...oh well," Alex remarked, his face displaying eagerness at the prospect of fighting...which was rather unlike him.

"I call the centre ones," Fiore exclaimed, running towards them at full pelt.

"Oh no you don't, I bag the middle ones," Alex retaliated, running after her.

Spyro and Sparx looked at each other, shrugged and then followed suit after them. By the time they got close however, Spyro decided to stay back because Alex and Fiore were both throwing apes left right and centre.

"Well, they seem to have it pretty well sorted, don't they?" Spyro muttered, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Say what you want, buddy...but these two fight a lot better than you do," Sparx remarked.

Spyro glared at him, but walked forwards when he saw that Alex and Fiore had finished off the apes. He noticed that in the pool of lava near the door there were several smouldering bodies, so he assumed they'd knocked them in deliberately.

"Well that was fun, nothing like a good fight to get the blood pumping," Alex remarked happily, as he smiled at Fiore, who also smiled, looking just as happy.

"A shame you didn't leave any for me," Spyro said.

"Well next time get to them faster, I mean both of us would like to get this mission over and done with quickly," Fiore smiled, causing Spyro to look at her questioningly.

"And what is so important that you want to get back to?" Spyro asked her.

She stared briefly at Alex, before realising that it was best not to tell Spyro about her feelings for Alex. "Oh...nothing really," she blushed, moving next to Alex, who smiled at her.

"Well then, time to soldier on then. I wonder what else we'll find on this journey?" Alex wondered out loud as he and Fiore walked through the doorway together.

Spyro quickly ran up in front of them, wanting to get in first at the action. They rounded a corner and found what looked like a mole working in the tunnel. It was currently facing away from them and wore a hat with a candle atop it.

"Man, he is small," Spyro whispered to Sparx.

"Way to state the obvious, mate," Alex remarked as the mole jumped and turned round to face them.

"What was that? Who's there?" it asked, slightly panicking, as well as in a French accent. It sniffed the air, obviously in order to tell if they were friendly or not.

"I-It's me, Spyro," Spyro answered, rather hastily.

"And the former God of Tall plains...Sparx," Sparx added, speaking with a lot more pride than Spyro did.

"As well as me and Fiore...who were just leaving," Alex said, walking away from the mole which he found rather revolting at this point.

The mole turned to face him. "While these two don't carry the stench of Cynders' forces...you carry a particularly strong stench like that of Cynder," the mole pointed at him accusingly, a slightly angry tone in his voice.

For a second, Alex was slightly nonplussed as to how to react. Fiore stepped in however.

"That's because we've had to fight Cynder on more than one occasion, as well as her forces," she said, putting up an actually rather good cover story.

It seemed to have fooled the mole, who stood where it was looking rather confused.

"I guess that would explain it...so I can only assume that you're friends," it said, looking back at Spyro.

"We are...who are you?" Spyro asked.

"I am Mole-Yair, leader of the Manweresmalls...But I'm not much of a leader anymore; those of my people who are mining for Cynder without pay are scared out of their little wits, waiting for Boyzitbig to blow!" The ground shook slightly at this, unsettling everyone. "Which shouldn't be long...If you could help me free them, perhaps there's something I can do for you?" it added, looking at Spyro hopefully.

"I don't know. We're here to rescue a big friend of ours," Spyro said.

"Is he a mighty dragon?" Mole-Yair asked.

"Yes...why?" Spyro answered.

"Because I know where he's being kept; he is being kept by a large labour camp, where my own brother, Exhumor, toils away...We can help each other!" Mole-Yair said happily.

"Well...which way do we go? What do we do next?" Spyro asked.

"Oh, it's simple enough, but we've got to hurry! Boyzitbig is getting more unstable by the minute! We must clear this cave before we can help your friend," Mole-Yair exclaimed franticly.

"And you're asking him for directions? Talk about blind leading the blind!" Sparx remarked sarcastically.

"Forget him, we're in," Spyro quickly said.

Alex was stood watching them talk, looking even more bored as the conversation continued.

"Surely we could just fly there, instead of wasting time rescuing moles inside tunnels?" he muttered. Everyone one turned to look at him. "Or not...blimey, heroes these days...too selfless for their own good," he continued, walking off into one of the tunnels with Fiore following him closely.

"You know, let's just let Spyro do the rescuing whilst we find Terrador," Fiore whispered to him.

"Good idea," Alex replied, smiling at her.

They had somehow taken one of the tunnels that led around the majority of the rooms in which the 'Manweresmalls' were mining. However, they did enter one room with them in, so Alex decided to free them just this once. The apes guarding them weren't much of a challenge, so Alex didn't bother with them and let Spyro finish them off when he came around. It wasn't long before Alex and Fiore arrived at a large rock which barred their way onwards.

"Looks like this is where that mole is going to help us, it seems," Fiore remarked.

From all the sounds of fighting and ape cries of pain, Alex could only assume that Spyro was getting close to finishing his path through all the tunnels. Eventually the cries stopped, and a few moments later, Mole-Yair opened the pathway from them.

"Alright then, let's go...preferably without any more distractions," Alex muttered at Spyro as they all walked through the pathway.

The next few minutes were spent with the group going through an area that had a mix of lava pools and furnaces. There were also some Magmaworms and apes. Since they didn't really pose much of a threat, Alex switched into his human form and did a few fast slashes with Kumori whilst running past them all, finishing by slowly sheathing his sword. As expected, all the apes fell over dead and the worms split in half also dead.

"What a waste of my skills," he muttered arrogantly, walking into a passageway. He turned a corner and saw something which made stop where he was. In front of him was a large purple scorpion. "Well, I hope that you can at least challenge me in some way," he muttered, addressing it with the sharp point of Kumori.

The scorpion made to snap at him with one of its claws, but was stopped when Alex sliced it off with his sword and followed up by slashing at its head once, before he thrust the sword all the way through its head, killing it.

"Hmph...I should stop expecting so much," he scoffed as he pulled his sword out and flicked it at the ground to clean the blood off. At this point the rest of the group appeared round the corner. Spyro noticed the scorpion corpse and would have thrown up, if he hadn't got such a strong stomach.

"You certainly make quick work of some of the more impressive looking creatures of this world," Fiore remarked as she walked up next to him.

"Yea, though I would hope that they could put up some sort of a fight before I kill them," Alex replied, as they walked through the rest of the passageway. They passed through a few more rooms, letting Spyro kill anything hostile they came across, before they arrived in a large area that held a structure with a bell in the centre.

Spyro went to investigate the bell, sniffing it before reaching out to touch it.

"I wouldn't touch that, Spyro," Alex warned him.

"Why would I want to?" Spyro replied, putting his paw back on the ground.

"Oh you're scared," Sparx taunted him.

"I'm not scared!" Spyro replied, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, the big special dragon is _scared _of the mean old bell. Oh, I didn't know that; oh no, I'm sorry baby, I'll get your pillow laid out," Sparx continued to taunt him.

Alex smiled in amusement as he watched Spyro hit the bell to prove he wasn't scared of it. As the bell rang, Alex could almost have predicted that it would fall on Spyro...which it did. Sparx no longer found the whole thing funny, as he was suddenly concerned for his 'brother's' safety.

"SPYRO, can you hear me? Are you okay, buddy?" he asked, sounding worried, "Okay, listen, forget about those cracks I made about your fatness, and your being purple and stupid and fat," he added "Alright? Just get out of there, please, Spyro. Don't be dead..."

Alex was looking at the bell, wondering if Spyro was actually dead. The moment the bell began to shake however, he knew otherwise. The bell vibrated two more times, before it was blown apart from the inside. Alex caught a glimpse of green when this happened, so he guessed that Spyro had found his earth breath. Spyro appeared from the rubble, looking surprisingly calm.

"Did you say something?" he asked Sparx.

"Me? No I was talking out loud, thinking of my day I got to do," Sparx answered, sounding slightly relieved.

"Oh, I just thought I heard something before I blasted my way out," Spyro added

"No, that's funny. Yeah, no, you must be hearing things," Sparx muttered sarcastically.

"Well now, this is nice and all, but how about we get back to what we are here for," Fiore muttered as she walked over to them, followed by Alex he was smiling slightly.

Just then a bunch of apes appeared from the path in front of them. However before they could fight them, the apes were all hit by a ball of blue-coloured fire.

"Oh great," Alex muttered darkly, as he looked to the right to where the fire ball had come from, to see the Black figure from the prison glaring down at him from atop a rock some meters away. It held its broadsword in its right hand, whilst its left was pointing out in front of it, as if it had just thrown the fire ball. The figure straightened its hand up, and dropped down onto the ground below. It slowly walked towards Alex, stopping a few meters away from him.

"Hmph, I didn't expect to find you again, but this should be fun," Alex remarked eagerly as he stared at the figure.

The figure didn't say anything; instead it looked at Spyro, Fiore and Sparx. It snapped its fingers and pointed to the path onwards. Alex knew what it was saying, and smiled.

"Ha, so you have a sense of honour do you, now that I can respect," he said, turning to look at Fiore, "I think that for your safety that you should all get going and leave this guy to me," he told them.

Fiore nodded, however Spyro and Sparx didn't look like they were going to take the hint.

"Why should we be left out of this fight?" Spyro asked.

"Put it like this, this guy would probably cut you in two in a second," Alex told him, causing Spyro to look suddenly less confident.

"Right...well, we'll be off then," he muttered nervously, as three of them walked up the path. Fiore walked a distance before she turned round to watch the fight. (Devil May Cry Ultra violet theme plays) As soon as they were out of harm's way, the figure rushed at Alex and brought his sword down at Alex's head. Alex blocked the attack easily with his own sword. He swiftly broke the deadlock and counter-attacked the figure, who was somehow able to block that attack as well.

From the sidelines, Fiore watched the fight with wide eyes. The speed at which Alex and the figure fought was blinding, so much so that she couldn't see whose blade was whose. Suddenly Alex and the figure entered a weapon deadlock, both of them glaring at each other. Fiore could vaguely see that the metal where the blades were connected was glowing with heat. The figure broke the lock and tried to get a sneak attack in on Alex, but it was blocked. They both leaped back away from each other, both of them panting for breath.

"Not bad, I really need to have a challenge like this more often," Alex muttered, grinning with enjoyment.

The figure and Alex suddenly dashed towards each other with great speed. They both thrust the swords at each other, causing the points of the swords to connect with each other. The sheer force from both of them connecting their swords at that speed caused a wave of energy to explode out from the centre point. Alex seemed to be viewing the event in slow motion, as he watched the energy from them spiral over their blades. Suddenly the figure's sword exploded and he was thrown back by an invisible force. Alex stood where he was, in awe of what had just happened. The figure got up slowly and growled at Alex.

"Doesn't look too fair a fight now without your sword, does it?" Alex gloated, before he switched into his dragon form, "So I think I'll even things up slightly," he added.

The figure suddenly looked smugly down at Alex...though it was hard to tell since his face was concealed by a 'face mask'. The figure got into a hand to hand fighting stance, and as it did, a pair of black metallic gauntlets appeared on its hands, as well as some metallic boots of the same colour on its legs. The feet area of the boots seemed to resemble dragon legs, only with a lot sharper talons at the edges. The gauntlets also seemed to resemble dragon claws, and covered the figures hand and arms completely. These items had two metal attachments which went across the figure's arms and up its legs.

"Nice, I got to have a pair of those," Alex remarked as he admired the gauntlets.

The figure was probably grinning as it motioned challengingly at Alex with its left hand, laughing with its evil distorted laugh. Alex accepted and leaped at the figure, intending to pin him to the ground. The figure, however, disappeared in some blue flames and reappeared in the air above and behind Alex. Before Alex could turn round and face the figure, the figure downward aerial-kicked Alex in the back. Alex was pushed to the ground by the force of this attack, and felt a great amount of pain in his back. He gingerly stood up and managed to roll away from the figure, who had tried to pull the same trick again.

"Well that wasn't nice at all...seems I'll have to pick my game up a notch," Alex muttered as he glared back at the figure. This time the figure didn't melee attack Alex, but instead brought its left hand back behind itself, charging up a ball of black energy in it. Alex quickly leaped into the air just as the figure thrust its left hand up at Alex, sending the energy ball towards him. Alex managed to dodge this attack in mid air, and dived at the figure knocking him to the ground. Not wanting to give the figure chance to respond, Alex unleashed his shadow fire on it, preventing the figure from doing anything for a short time. It wasn't long before the figure teleported out from under Alex's fire. Alex instinctively rolled to the side as the figure's foot slammed into the ground where he had been a second before. Alex noticed that there was a shadowy effect on the gauntlets and boots whenever the figure tried to hit him with them.

The majority of the fight continued in much the same fashion, with Alex dodging the figure and counter attacking him at points in time. Eventually the figure teleported on top of the structure which had held the bell. It taunted Alex, before unleashing the dark energy balls at him. Alex rolled to the side each time, but wasn't able to have time to get close before the Figure had thrown another fire ball at him.

"_Ok...this guy is now seriously annoying me now," _Alex thought angrily as he dodged to the side.

"_Alex, you still have the amulet on you; try summoning swords to help you fight him off," _Kumori suggested, sounding rather concerned.

"_Oh yea, I'd forgotten about that," _Alex replied.

Kumori sighed with exasperation as Alex concentrated on the amulet. He managed to summon a sword, before the figure threw an energy ball at him. The sword fell towards the figure, who leaped off the structure and back onto the ground.

Alex followed up by summoning another sword and sending it at the figure. This time the figure teleported into the air and was about to redo this aerial attack like before. Since Alex couldn't summon the swords fast enough, he had to roll out of the way. The figure this time threw a bunch of punches and kicks at Alex, but wasn't able to hit him before Alex had summoned a sword to help him distract the figure. Eventually Alex evoked what he called his 'spiral sword' technique. This involved summoning ten swords that would circle around him as a shield.

When he did this, the figure stayed back from Alex, somehow knowing what was coming. Unlike when he used them on Nathaniel, Alex made a different motion with his paw. This time the swords disappeared and then appeared around the figure. The swords circled around the figure like with Alex, but stopped after a few seconds, before they all shot inwards towards the figure. The figure wasn't able to dodge this, and was hit from all sides by the swords.

Alex followed this up by shooting dark fire at the figure. When it connected with the figure, the figure screamed in pain. Suddenly the figure's body was surrounded by the blue flames and rose into the air, before flying through the roof of the area they were in, and off in some random direction in the sky.

When he was sure the figure was gone, Alex collapsed onto the ground. Fiore ran over to him and helped him stand back up.

"Are you alright?" she asked him.

"Yea, that fight has taken a lot out of me, and I don't think that summoning swords like that is such a good idea to do on a regular basis," Alex replied wryly, smiling at Fiore.

"Definitely not," Fiore smiled back.

When Alex felt good enough to move again, both of them decided to head out of the hole in the roof, because Spyro had already gone on further ahead. It was a tight squeeze to get out, but when they did, they decided to fly over in the direction of the large volcano, since there wasn't really any way of knowing where they should go to.

After a few minutes, Fiore spotted Spyro running around some sort of camp, freeing 'Manweresmalls' as he went along. Both of them landed and helped him kill the apes guarding the area.

"Hey, you're back with us," Sparx remarked, seeing them arrive.

"Yep, though that was a really tough fight," Alex said, walking over to him and Spyro.

"Splendid, now that we've caught up, how about we get going?" Fiore muttered, walking over next to Alex.

"Not yet, we have to find out from Exhumor where Terrador is," Spyro replied calmly.

Just then Exhumor appeared with Mole-Yair, and Spyro ran over to talk with them. Alex and Fiore agreed to stay out of it. Eventually they found out the location of Terrador and were off through several tunnels and a mini volcano before they finally reached the area where he was located. All the while Spyro had been freeing 'Manweresmalls' and killing Apes, whilst Alex watched with a mixture of amusement, and boredom.

They finally arrived in a large open circular area. At the opposite end of this area was a large, glowing, purple crystal, and behind it in some sort of cage, lay Terrador, apparently unconscious.

"Is that Terrador?" Spyro asked.

"The big dragon being held in the centre of an explosive volcano...I'm guessing that's him," Sparx remarked sarcastically.

"And there he is; I'm surprised that he's sleeping at a time like this," Alex joked, taking a few steps forward.

He noticed several pools of lava, and made a mental note not to stand anywhere near them.

"Be careful; something doesn't feel right," Spyro warned.

"You know after the last two times, I'm going to agree with you, buddy," Sparx remarked.

"It could be down to the fact this volcano is going to erupt soon...so we might want to hurry and rescue him," Fiore said, walking over towards where Terrador was imprisoned.

Suddenly from out of a side gate, the remaining half of Steam lumbered out, with its conductor bouncing up and down on the seat as he spoke.

"You're a little late, fellas; the crystal's already charged and the volcano's ready to blow," he said menacingly, glaring down at them. "But before that happens...me and Steam here are gonna take great pleasure in running you down," he added, grinning evilly.

"This is going to be boring...I'll let you handle this on your own, Spyro," Alex said, walking to stand at the side of the tracks away from the reach of the train.

"I second that, it's about time we saw you take something large down; show us what you've got, _purple boy_," Fiore added, saying the last two words in a seductive, yet encouraging manner.

Spyro didn't know how to take that, so he instead ran at the train, attacking it with his elemental attacks.

Alex watched him battle the train with mild interest. When Spyro worked out that the train was weakest at the rear, the battle turned rather boring, particularly since the conductor constantly crashed the train into the walls, letting Spyro do a lot of damage to it. Eventually the train shuddered to a halt next to Terrador's prison...and promptly exploded.

After the train exploded next to the crystal, Terrador pretty much fell out of the cage onto the ground. He groggily stood up, as Spyro walked over to him. Alex and Fiore followed him, and stood behind him. When Terrador saw Spyro, he immediately sat up.

"The Purple Dragon lives!" he exclaimed, sounding rather surprised.

"He's got a name you know," Spark said.

"Yea, my names Spyro," he answered, looking up at Terrador, adding "and you must be Terrador."

"Yes, yes I am. And I must say I thought I'd never live to see you, Spyro," Terrador replied.

"Well, did you think you'd live to see us two again?" Alex called from behind Spyro, walking forward into view with Fiore. When Terrador saw them, his eyes widened slightly.

"Alex...Fiore, I'm glad to see you two are safe...I had feared that all of the young dragons were dead," he said.

"Look, I'd love to sit here and hug everybody and chitchat...but how about we leave before the volcano blows us up?" Sparx asked nervously.

"You're right...I've got to tell the others what Cynder is up to." Terrador said, with a slight amount of urgency in his voice.

"Let's go, I'm right behind you...Actually, I'm in front of you," Sparx remarked as they took a few steps forward.

Suddenly the ground shook violently. From out of a lava pool, came a large, black dragon that Alex immediately knew was Cynder. Alex heard Fiore jump to his side when Cynder appeared, and then felt her clinging to him out of fear.

Cynder looked down at the group in front of her, her cold, green eyes analysing each in turn. When she saw Alex, she roared angrily, causing Fiore to cling even more desperately to his side. Despite the hostility that Cynder was showing him, Alex smiled up at her in a loving-brotherly sort of way. He thought for a moment that he saw her eyes become suddenly calmer and more like eyes of a young dragon, but it was gone the moment Terrador moved forward.

"Run!" he yelled to everyone. Spyro didn't move, whilst Fiore looked as if she was about to do just that.

"Look, when the guy says run, I think he knows something," Sparx exclaimed, trying to convince Spyro to move.

Alex moved and stood next to Terrador. "Don't think you're going to keep me from this, she and I have some family business to sort out," he whispered to him. Terrador looked down at him, then back at Cynder, and nodded in realization.

Alex looked back at Spyro and Sparx. "This is likely to turn nasty; I suggest getting out of here rather quickly," he warned them both. Spyro didn't budge and stared up at Cynder. Alex had to hand it to the kid; he was either very brave to stand his ground in the presence of Cynder, or else rather stupid...Alex suspected it was the latter.

Cynder obviously didn't have the time to fight them, so she instead swooped down and grabbed the purple crystal. She then made to fly off. Terrador however decided to fly after her, probably in an attempt to stop her.

"_This is going to end badly," _Alex thought, shaking his head. As he had guessed, Cynder hit Terrador in mid air, sending him back onto the ground with a loud thudding noise. Spyro looked rather shocked at this, having obviously never thought a guardian could be dispatched so easily. Before they could do anything, a pillar began to fall ominously over Terrador. He managed to dodge out of the way in time.

"Get out of here, you lot; I'll go back to the temple for help," he yelled, before flying off back towards the temple.

"By the time he gets back we'll be dead, so I think running is rather pointless," Alex shook his head, whilst a now rather determined looking Fiore stood next to him.

Cynder roared at Spyro, who pretty much fled at the sight. Cynder gave chase, though Alex wasn't sure why.

"Looks like we have to follow them," Fiore remarked, as both of them took off after Cynder.

"Spyro sure picked a great retreat path," Alex remarked sarcastically as they flew directly through the volcano, passing by and over pools of lava. They both knew that they couldn't use fire attacks at Cynder in case they hit Spyro, so they were stuck following them through the tunnels.

It wasn't helping Spyro that Cynder was both on his tail and shooting dark fire at him, but he also had no idea where he was going which wasn't filling Alex with a great deal of confidence. At one point they passed over a mining camp similar to the one they had passed through before. Eventually Spyro flew up through the ceiling of the tunnel, and out through the side of the main part of the volcano.

At this point Alex was practically right next to Cynder's tail blade as he desperately tried to get past her. Suddenly Ignitus appeared from out of nowhere and barrelled into Cynder, which unfortunately caused her to hit Alex as well. He fell a few feet, before he was able to get airborne again. He looked up and saw Ignitus hit Cynder with so much force that they both fell rapidly towards the ground, whilst Cynder gave an inhuman scream. Unfortunately, he was near to them when this happened, so he was dragged down with them.

Fiore watched him fall with Cynder, a look of horror on her face. Spyro was right next to her at this point and they both were about to follow Alex down, before Terrador flew in front of them. When Fiore tried to pass by him, he moved to stop her.

"We have to him, we need to help Alex!" she exclaimed, trying desperately to get past.

"And Ignitus," Spyro added, just as desperately.

"They're gone, guys; there's nothing we can do," Sparx said, surprisingly seriously for him.

"NO, I WON'T ABANDON HIM AGAIN," Fiore snarled, her eyes displaying a rage that someone would only feel for a loved one.

Spyro had been all for going after Ignitus and Alex, but seeing Fiore as enraged as she was made him rethink doing anything of the sort.

"No, Fiore, he's right," Terrador quickly said soothingly, trying to calm Fiore down.

"I'm right! Oh my god, that must be a first!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Yes, you'd never find them in this mess. And you're not ready to face her yet Spyro. The fight will come, but it is not now." He reassured both of them, looking between them as he spoke.

Spyro sighed. "I guess you're right. Let's go," he muttered sadly.

Both he and Terrador flew off, Spyro giving the area where Ignitus had fallen one last look, before he noticed Fiore hadn't moved.

"Come on, Fiore, you heard what he said, let's go," he called.

With great reluctance Fiore turned and flew after him, looking back sadly as she did.

"_I'm sorry...my love," _she thought sadly as they flew.

**Well that was surprising wasn't it, what's going to happen to Alex. Be in for a large surprise next chapter, can any of you guess what it will be? As a side note, I noticed that barely anyone posted a review for the last chapter. I would really appreciate it if you do review this chapter. Until next time, bye...**


	16. Unexpected turn of events

**Hey everyone, I've finally written the next chapter. Sorry for the huge wait, but a combination of writers block, exams, and a slightly harsh but rather helpful review made me unable to write this chapter for a while. This chapter has a rather important plot advancement in it though. With all this having been said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 15: Unexpected turn of events**

Alex was falling through the air, trapped underneath Cynder as she fell. With enough struggling, he managed to free himself from the group as they fell. Alex spread his wings and was gliding after a few seconds. He landed on the ground and found Ignitus lying on the ground unconscious. Whilst they had been falling, Cynder had flipped over and thrown him into the ground. She placed the crystal down and threw him against a wall, making sure that he was knocked out.

Alex immediately grabbed the crystal and walked away with it, not wanting to escape without her noticing him. A second passed and Cynder suddenly noticed what he had done.

She snarled and spun around to face him. He also turned around as well.

"Lose something?" he asked coolly, holding up the crystal.

"Give that to me," Cynder commanded angrily.

"No way...besides," he remarked, idly throwing the crystal behind him, before changing into his human form, "I'm sure you have time for one more game," he added, as his hand rested upon Kumori.

Cynder was briefly surprised by the change, but didn't care about it at all after a second. She made as if to dive at him, before she stopped herself and grinned evilly at him.

"Why not? After all you have proved to be more of a challenge than those who came before you...Don't disappoint me," she challenged, with a hint of excitement in her voice as she got into a fighting position. (Devil may cry 3, Vergil fight 2 plays)

Alex grinned as he drew Kumori from her sheath. For some reason he enjoyed the idea of fighting his younger sister. He started off by walking slowly towards her, fixing her with a stare. Cynder struck first, slashing at him with her claws. He effortlessly dodged back and parried Cynder's next attack with Kumori. Leaping back, the amulet around his neck appeared.

"Time to see how good you are," Alex challenged, as he focused energy into the amulet. The familiar sound of swords being summoned was heard, as ten appeared around Alex. Cynder recoiled slightly, surprised by what had just happened. Alex smirked, as he ran towards her and made a horizontal slash at her. She desperately tried to escape from the swords, but was still cut slightly in the side by Kumori.

She shuddered with anger and, without warning, opened her mouth menacingly. A second later, fire erupted from her mouth. Though the swords that spiralled around Alex protected him from melee attacks, they weren't as good at stopping magic/elemental attacks. As such it took only about five seconds for the swords to have all been shattered by her fire.

Alex leaped back away from her, having suffered only minor burns. "So that's how they're stopped...I was wondering for a while," he muttered, smiling slightly at Cynder. The noise of the volcano erupting in the background was lost to them as they fixed each other with a stare. Alex acted this time, first sheathing Kumori, then charging up his elemental energy in her, before releasing it as he rapidly unsheathed her. The result was a long shadow slash, which headed straight for Cynder.

Instead of taking a hit, Cynder disappeared in a cloud of shadow, avoiding the attack. Alex instinctively rolled out of the way, but he had done so a little too quickly. Cynder reappeared from out of a cloud of shadow below Alex, causing him to rise into the air. Cynder did as well and then she quickly hit him away with her tail. Alex flew into a large rock and broke it with the impact.

He cried out in pain and struggled to stand up. Within moments however, Cynder had already got hold of him, and thrown him across to the other side of the area they were in. This time Alex righted himself whilst in mid-air. He managed to land cleanly on the ground, but saw Cynder running towards him. He quickly summoned a sword that shot towards her. She had barely enough time to move as the summoned sword flew towards her right side. It pierced the scales below her wing and she roared in pain. Alex felt a little bad for hurting his sister, even if she didn't know who he was. The sword shattered like glass and had unfortunately cost Alex a little too much energy, more than he would have liked.

Cynder leaped at him, a murderous look in her eyes. Alex rolled to the side and made to slash at Cynder's side. She moved out of range of the attack and made to slash at him with her claws. Alex used Kumori to block the attack, but could feel himself tiring. In a desperate bid for an advantage, Alex leaped up into the air, summoned a sword and sent it at her. Whilst he did this, he ran at Cynder from the ground. He was hoping that he would distract her long enough to get close. His plan failed, as Cynder had seen through it and had simply destroyed the sword with her fire, before turning the flames towards him.

Alex tried to dodge the fire, but it only just missed him. He leaped back away from her and sheathed his sword.

At this point, Cynder stood panting as she glared down at Alex. Alex could tell that he had tired her slightly, but he had over extended himself a little too much. He felt his legs give way as he fell to the floor. He used Kumori to prop himself up off the ground.

"Is that...all you...got? Come on...get up...you can do...a lot better...than that," Cynder panted angrily, as she glared down at him.

Alex transformed into his dragon form, hoping to regain the energy that he had lost, but he felt the fatigue remain as he tried to stand. He chuckled lightly.

"You're good Cynder...very good. Why do you serve the Dark Master?" he asked her as he struggled onto his feet.

"That's none of your business!" she snapped, using her tail to knock him away. He got up slowly and smiled.

"It's because the darkness has given you so much power that it has stripped you of your free will...am I right?" he asked softly, looking up at her.

"SILENCE," she yelled, hitting him again.

Alex couldn't actually stand up at this point. "Why should you be the one to serve a master, when you could be the one they serve?" he muttered.

Cynder stopped dead for a moment, looking at him with a strange look in her eye.

"I...I..." she stuttered, looking both shocked and confused.

"_**Don't even think about it, you are a slave to our master...and that is how it will stay!" **_Cynder's darkness yelled at her.

"_But if I take control...then I can be free from the darkness...and this suffering," _her good and real self argued.

"_**Who cares about Control? All that matters is that we serve him...you know nothing but DARKNESS!" **_her dark side roared.

Cynder whimpered and clutched her head...as if she was in agony. Alex had summoned enough strength to stand. Slowly and carefully, he walked over to her. When he got close he could hear the conversation she was having.

"_But I don't what Darkness...I want to be free and able to live a normal life," she cried._

"_**FREE? YOU'LL NEVER BE FREE OF THE DARKNESS! AND NO ONE WILL ACCEPT YOU AFTER ALL YOU'VE DONE!" **_her darkness screamed with rage. Cynder continued to whimper in pain and thrashed about for a few seconds. _**"EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING HATES YOU! YOU EVEN HATE YOURSELF! DON'T RESIST THE DARKNESS!" **_it continued angrily, its voice getting louder, causing Cynder's whimpers to increase in volume.

Alex sighed and placed his paw on her head. She flinched and gave a low growl.

"Not everyone hates you," he comforted her in a soft voice, looking into her eyes.

"W-what? How could you hear that," she spluttered, looking shocked.

"_**LIES...ALL LIES! HE HATES YOU JUST LIKE THE REST! HE'LL KILL YOU WHEN YOU DROP YOUR GUARD!" **_her dark side barked, trying to distract her.

"No...I don't hate you for killing my friend...in fact..." he began, kneeling down so that his head and face was level with hers. "I forgive you," he whispered to her.

Her eyes widened when he said this. "You...forgive...me?" she asked, sounding surprised. Alex nodded. As he looked into her eyes, he saw her eyes change back to their childlike look, as tears began to fall from them.

Suddenly they both heard the sound of laughter.

"Touching...seems you've found a pathetic soul that feels sorry for you!" Alex turned his head and saw a large ape walking towards them, with a bunch of smaller ones and a few larger behind him. Cynder almost immediately drew back away from him, as Alex quickly turned back into his human form.

"Sorry, but I don't think you're a part of this little conversation that we were having," he growled, his hand resting near Kumori as he spoke, "so beat it!"

The large ape that had spoken chuckled, inciting all the other apes around him to laugh also.

"Bold words from someone who has no real power," it taunted.

Alex growled and ran towards the ape, moving to slash at the ape with Kumori. He wasn't moving as fast as he normally would, due to the many wounds Cynder had given him. The ape stood where it was, watching Alex run towards it. As Alex slashed at it, the ape simply caught the blade before it could do any damage.

"Sorry, that was close," it mocked, echoed with laughter from the apes around it, "but you've taken rather a nasty trouncing today, haven't you?" it remarked smugly.

Alex glared at it, before he freed the sword and horizontally swung the sword at the ape's head. The ape ducked under the sword and delivered an uppercut to Alex's face. The force that Alex felt when the ape's fist connected with his face was so great that it sent him flying backwards, till he landed near to where Cynder was.

"You could have probably cut me into so many little pieces by now if you were at your full strength," it continued to mock Alex, as the other apes laughed hysterically.

Alex stood up slowly, stumbling slightly as he did so.

"Why don't you leave while you still have your heads?" he growled, glaring at the ape.

"Why leave when you don't pose a threat? After all, the only reason you're here today is because you've been using _my_ items!" the ape replied, smirking slightly at Alex's confused expression.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Yes, Acerbus...I'm intrigued," Cynder said suddenly, sounding as evil as she always did.

'Acerbus' grinned evilly, as he closed his eyes and lifted his right hand up to face Alex. Alex suddenly felt a rush of energy past him. Suddenly Kumori rose up into the air, followed shortly by the amulet Alex wore around his neck.

"WHAT! NO!" he exclaimed, looking astonished at what was happening in front of his eyes. Both of the items flew towards Acerbus, who caught both of them with his right hand. He looked down at Kumori and smirked.

"It's been a long time since I last held you...Kumori," he muttered smugly.

Despite the fact he wasn't holding her, Alex could hear Kumori speak. "Not long enough..._Acerbus_," she spat, in an angry tone.

"Why so cold? After all, I did free you from the prison you were in," he taunted, ignoring Alex completely. Alex was now bristling with rage, both at having his favourite weapon taking from him and at what Acerbus had just said.

Not bothering to think, Alex ran full pelt at him, ignoring the searing pain that he felt from the many wounds Cynder had given him. Acerbus looked up to see him running towards him. He didn't bother reacting; instead he looked at the amulet in his hand. Suddenly one of the summoned swords appeared. Alex didn't have any chance to react, before the sword flew towards him. He tried to dodge it, but the sword pierced his left shoulder and left wing when he tried to. He let out a howl of pain and collapsed to the ground. The summoned sword didn't shatter like normal and remained lodged in him.

"Ha, foolish dragon, I've had a lot more practice with those swords than you have," Acerbus gloated, as the apes around him laughed hysterically.

Cynder however didn't find what she saw amusing. Normally she would have left Acerbus to his gloating of a prisoner, but there was something about Alex that made her feel different. It wasn't a love sort of emotion- though she wouldn't have known what that was anyway- but more that there was something familiar about him. She looked down at him, as he groaned in pain whilst trying to stand. She looked over at Acerbus and suddenly felt a wave of hatred flow over her.

"_Why do I feel so angry at him, this dragon shouldn't mean anything," _she thought as she looked back at Alex.

"_**Because Acerbus is taking all the fun... go and join in on the fun," **_her dark side urged, sounding gleeful and mad at the same time.

"_No, I won't...this one's different," _she argued with her dark side, whilst Acerbus continued to humiliate Alex.

"Pathetic dragon, the time of your race is over...it's time for a new race to take control of this world," Acerbus spoke with an air of confidence.

"Not while the...purple dragon... stays free...and I...still draw breath," Alex struggled to speak through the pain.

Cynder could hear the desperation in his voice and couldn't help but feel pity for him. He struggled for a moment, before slowly turning his head to look directly at her. When she stared into his deep red eyes, she saw something that made her heart stop for a second. She didn't show any emotion though, so Alex looked away from her in defeat and resumed glaring at Acerbus.

"Enough...you've been a rather large thorn in our sides for too long," Acerbus began, lifting up a staff with green glowing crystals at the head, "it's time to end your miserable life...NOW!" Acerbus exclaimed, pointing the staff at Alex, as it began to glow. A narrow beam of energy was released from the tip, which then proceeded directly towards Alex.

Alex braced himself for the impact, closing his eyes and shielding himself with his good wing.

"NO!" someone screamed, but it was hard to hear exactly who. Just then, he heard the flurry of movement to his side, but only faintly over the roar of the energy blast.

Suddenly he felt a large wing close around him, which was soon followed by a howl of pain. Alex looked up and saw that Cynder had shielded him from the attack. She collapsed to the ground and Alex noticed a smoking patch on her scales near her back. What happened next was even more surprising, because Cynder's body began to glow, and shrink in size. Alex was now staring at her with wide eyes, shocked by what he was seeing. As her body shrank, Cynder's features also became younger looking. Eventually she was the size that Spyro was.

From that moment, a smile formed on Alex's face. "You're free," he whispered to her, as she slowly stood up off the ground. Alex had forgotten about the sword that was in his side, which now shattered into nothing. Unfortunately when it did this, blood started to poor out of his shoulder. He ignored the pain however, as he limped over to Cynder's side.

"Useless dragon whelp...you dare go against my will...the will of the great Dark Master, Malefor, you must be punished," Acerbus screamed in rage, brandishing Kumori at Cynder and Alex. He made to walk towards them, but suddenly a few geysers erupted around them all. He recoiled back slightly. "Forget about them, take the crystal and the dragon to the boats, we're leaving," he barked to the apes, who immediately grabbed Ignitus and the crystal, before they all ran off back the way they had come from.

Acerbus walked away from Alex and Cynder. "I'll leave you two to die here...like you should," he muttered, before disappearing from view.

Alex struggled to remain standing up, but his muscles were weak and he collapsed to the ground.

"Ha, I never thought I'd die like this," he muttered weakly, looking down at Cynder, who had passed out from the attack. "Looks like I'll have to get both of us out of here then," he added, looking up at the volcano.

His muscles already felt weak at the thought and his damaged shoulder wasn't going to help at all. He knew that he needed to move quickly, as the volcano was spewing ash and lava all over the place. He bent down and tried to get Cynder's body to lie across his. It was a rather difficult thing to try normally, but with his injured shoulder, it was near impossible. After a lot of attempts, he managed to get her onto his back. He looked around and saw a passageway through into a tunnel.

He walked towards it, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder as he did. He could tell that it wasn't doing it any good, but he knew that it would be better if he was alive, than worry about his body parts. He wandered through the tunnel, finding no life what so ever.

"_I guess they've all gone, or else have hidden underground," _he thought, as he wandered through tunnel after tunnel.

After five minutes of this, he eventually came back out into the open. Looking around, the area seemed to be the coastal part of Munitions Forge. He spotted a large wooden object in the water, which he recognised as a boat. There seemed to be a lot of boxes around it.

"Perfect, that's our ticket out of here," he said, as he walked slowly towards it. As he drew nearer, he noticed two apes standing guard over the boat. "Damn, and here I thought this was going to be easy," Alex cursed quietly. As stealthily as he could, he made his way over to the boxes near them.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to fight them in the condition that he was in, so he instead decided to just escape as quickly as possible. The guards moved away from the ship for some reason. Alex watched them leave and noted the haste that they left with.

"_I guess they finally realised it's not worth guarding the ship, oh well," _Alex thought smugly. He didn't waste another second, as he ran- or rather walked quickly onto the ship. Placing Cynder down onto the deck, Alex cut the rope that held them to the shore. He gave the bank a little shove, which got the boat off the shore.

As the boat floated away, Alex noted with some satisfaction that the apes had noticed the boat leaving and were currently jumping up and down on the shore out of rage.

"Too bad guys...better luck next time," he mocked, balancing on the mast of the ship.

As the ship sailed away from the shore, Alex admired the view of the volcano erupting.

"For something so destructive, it's actually rather interesting to look at," he remarked. He gasped as a sudden jolt of pain sparked from his shoulder. Leaping down from the mast, he went in search of some medical supplies...or any crystals he could find. Unfortunately, he only found food supplies, so he exited the cabin and went to check up on Cynder.

He found her in the same position he'd left her in. When he moved towards her, she stirred. He took a step back, as she raised her head. She gave him a blurry-eyed look, before her eyes widened.

"Nice to see you're back, I was worried you'd died for a second there," Alex smiled warmly at her.

Cynder back away from him rapidly, obviously afraid and confused. "You...what, but...where am I?" she spluttered, looking around franticly.

"Shh shh...calm down, it's ok...you're safe now," Alex quickly said soothingly, trying to calm her down.

She looked suddenly alarmed. "Safe! How am I safe...I'm on a boat sailing ancestors knows where!" she exclaimed, backing away further, only to hit the edge of the ship.

"Look, I rescued both of us from that erupting volcano," Alex pointed angrily towards the mountain, before adding just as angrily, "and I also know where we are going...so JUST CALM DOWN!"

Cynder looked terrified at this outburst and shrank away from him. He immediately realised his mistake.

"Sorry...it's just that after finally rescuing you, I didn't think it would be like this," he muttered sadly, looking up at the darkening sky.

Cynder finally seemed to calm down at this point and took a few steps towards him.

"Who are you?" she asked him quietly.

Alex looked back at her, and smiled warmly at her again. "My name is Alex...and I'm your older brother," he answered calmly, expecting her to react badly.

"Really?" she asked. Alex nodded and was surprised to see her face brighten. She smiled happily, and moved a lot closer to him.

"I...err...I'm sorry for what I did earlier," Cynder apologized weakly.

"That wasn't your fault, after all you were just defending yourself," Alex replied.

Cynder looked up at him sadly. "I meant before that," she said, before looking away, "when i killed...your friend," she added weakly.

Alex stooped dead for a second, remembering what happened only two days ago. He sighed and placed a paw on Cynder's face. Unlike before, she didn't flinch, but looked sadly at him.

"I already told you, I forgive you for that...after all it was me who failed to rescue you, so long ago," he said, one or two tears appearing in his eyes.

Cynder was both shocked and surprised at what he had just said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked quietly.

Alex took a deep breath, and answered. "The night of the temple raid, your egg was stolen...I tried to rescue you...but I was stopped," he looked away from her, before adding, "I failed you, just like I failed my friend."

She sighed and hugged him. While this would have been a nice thing, Alex suddenly felt a jolt of pain in his shoulder and yelped. This caused Cynder to recoil off him, looking at him worriedly.

"Sorry...looks like my shoulder isn't going to heal any time soon," he muttered weakly, as the pain slowly died down.

There was a silence for a while, as both of them were unsure what to say, or even do at this point.

After a while, Cynder decided to see what supplies they had with them, whilst Alex watched the navigation carefully. The journey was rather long, and boring, so Alex sat watching the sky. He felt a sense of joy that he had helped to free Cynder from the Dark Master's control. The loss of Kumori weighed heavily on him however, which ruined his feelings of joy.

There was something about the sword which made him feel different. It was like the sword had become a part of him, he seemed to care about '_her_' as if she did. He didn't know what to think, but he knew that he would have to get her back, as well as help rescue Ignitus.

"It'll probably be like killing two birds with one stone...but I think that metaphor is a bit harsh," he said, smiling slightly at his logic. For the moment though, he was satisfied that he had done enough rescuing for one day.

As he went to check up on Cynder, he suddenly felt weary and his sight started to blur. He realised that his shoulder wound had drained a little too much blood, as he fell to the floor and slipped into unconsciousness.

**Meanwhile...Back with Fiore.**

The fight back to the temple was unusually quiet. Spyro was still worried about Ignitus, but it wasn't even close to what Fiore was feeling. She was lost in her own thoughts, thoughts of sadness and regret. She had lost another dragon that she cared about to Cynder and, worse still, it was the one which meant the most to her in the world.

They all arrived back at the temple some time during the night. When they landed, the two other guardians immediately asked what had happened. Spyro sadly explained what had happened, whilst Terrador comforted him with a motivational war speech. Fiore wasn't paying attention to them as she walked into the temple soundlessly. She walked into her room...the room that she and Alex had shared together the night before.

She leaped onto the bed and stared at the spot where they had both slept. A tear fell from her eye, as she padded over to the spot. She had only been apart from Alex for an hour, but it felt like a life time had passed. It was exactly like when he had disappeared, because then she thought that he was dead. In truth, that was what she believed had happened.

In her mind, she desperately hoped that he was alive, but she knew that Cynder would outmatch him on his own...no matter how powerful he was.

"_How could I have let this happen? ...I've lost another person I care about to her," _she thought sadly. She was deep in thought, so deep that she didn't even focus on the room. She was simply in a dream effectively.

She suddenly dug her claw into the bed. _"It's all Cynder's fault...I'll make her pay for this," _she thought angrily, before she slumped down onto the bed.

"Why...why did you have to rescue her?" she muttered sadly, as she curled up into a sleeping position. She tried not to think about Alex, but it was impossible. He simply meant too much to her...even more than her brother meant to her.

She sighed, and stared out of the window into the starry sky. Deep in her heart, she knew that Alex was dying, but it made her feel terrible that she wasn't with him. She could almost feel the pain he was feeling, but she didn't even stop to think about why she felt this.

"I wish I could be with him," she whispered sadly, "I wish I could help him!"

She suddenly felt a strange phenomenon pass over her. A second later, she felt very sleepy and promptly fell asleep, unaware as to what she had just done.

**Well wasn't that interesting. Cynder's been rescued, which means this story is no longer following ANB's plot line. Please review this chapter, and constructive critisism would be allowed, since the last one actually helped me work out a suitable plot line. Until next time (Which i hope won't be as long away), bye...**


	17. Her love

**I've finally found the time to write this chapter. Sorry for he long wait, but a lot of things caused me to be unable to write for very long. Anyway enough of my excuses, on with this long overdue story...**

**Chapter 16: Her love**

In the temple Nat was busy practising fighting with his swords. He wasn't that interested in what was going on with the guardians, Fiore and Spyro. As far as he could tell, they were all depressed over something about Ignitus and Alex having been 'captured'. He had listened to them up to that point, before suddenly losing interest and finding something to kill. As he had shown, Nat wasn't really someone that you should count on to be sad at someone's loss...that, and he was slightly enjoying the idea of him rescuing Alex for once and at being smug when he did.

He was mostly fighting dummy apes and was constantly using 'roundtrip' to beat them, as he hadn't learned how to do anything else as effectively. Vesica was getting rather tired of being used constantly in the same way.

"_How about trying something other than throwing me at enemies? This is getting boring," _she suggested, sounding a little forceful.

"_What else is there that I can practice? I can't do anything else any better," _Nat replied, as he caught her again. He slammed the blade into the ground, which caused a pillar of ice to form and destroy most of the dummies in the room. The pillar disappeared shortly after that, as Nat recovered from the energy it had cost him.

"_Why not try and extend the time you can be in your 'demon' form?" _she suggested.

"_Sure, only when you actually tell me how to get in it, since you did it for me the last time,"_ he replied, slightly annoyed.

"_It's simply a case of tapping into my power and using it to enter your 'devil trigger' state," _Vesica answered.

Nat shrugged, knowing that it was pointless trying to argue with her. He closed his eyes and attempted to enter devil trigger. He wasn't able to manage it, since he was trying to think about how he looked.

After two minutes of nothing, Vesica decided to give another little nudge in the right direction. She told him to try meditating in order to clear his mind and then focus upon herself. He questioned why he had to focus on her, but she told him to shut up and do as she said.

Sulkily, he gave in and began meditating. For someone like Nat who couldn't focus on anything for more than thirty seconds at the most, it proved rather difficult. Eventually he managed to enter devil trigger form. Like before, his devil trigger form consisted of his body's skin taking on ice like features/ properties. This time his head changed and morphed into one that looked a lot more demoniac than before. He had a blue aura about him when he was like this. Vesica also changed slightly when he 'triggered', gaining a stream of ice from the blade when Nat swung her through the air. Sadly he could only hold his form for about three seconds before it wore off.

"Well at least I managed it naturally this time," he mused, smiling as he began to fight a group of dummies that had appeared.

It took a while, but Nat kept practising entering Devil trigger state, causing it to last longer. After about an hour of this, he felt confident that he could hold himself in it for at least ten minutes. Unfortunately he found out the hard way that it is possible to be knocked out of this form, specifically by enough damage being dealt to him in a short space of time. This happened when he decided to try out fighting a very large dummy.

As it happened, he spent a large amount of time running around it while in devil trigger form, until it got annoyed and swung its club/ mallet wildly. It hit him and he was forced out of his triggered state, which shocked him. This allowed the dummy to get another hit in on him, before he counter attacked and decapitated it with Vesica.

"Ok, note to self. Avoid large clubs and large apes!" he muttered as he got up gingerly.

Just then Terrador and Spyro entered the training room. Nat hadn't known Terrador long, but he had already taken a liking to his way of doing things. This was mostly because it involved combat, and if there was anything that Nat loved, it was combat. Terrador looked down at Nat, who had stood up at this point and was trying to look reasonable.

"While no one wants to interrupt your training...Spyro needs this room now more than you do," he said, his voice heralding a slight amount of authority, which seemed to be lacking at munitions forge.

"Sure, there's nothing else I need to learn, old man!" Nat remarked as he casually walked back into the pool of visions room. Terrador cringed for a moment at the small insult, before shrugging it off. He began to instruct Spyro on how to use earth.

As Nat entered the pool of visions room, he saw Iocus walking in the direction of the sleeping rooms. He could tell that something was bothering him and Nat didn't know what. Iocus noticed Nat as he made his way over to the door.

"Hey, Iocus, what's got you down?" Nat asked in a jokingly fashion.

"Nat, I'm worried about my sister," Iocus answered, looking up at the door, before opening it.

"Oh, why's that?" Nat asked, having not been paying anyone the slightest bit of attention from when they had arrived.

Iocus remained silent from a moment, glaring at Nat for not seeing the obvious. "Didn't you see what she was like when they returned?" he asked. His annoyance rose when Nat shook his head. "She was upset! And I don't just mean that she was sad. I mean that she was almost not there!"

"You've got to be imagining things, Iocus; maybe she was just sad about losing Ignitus...everyone seems to be down about that," Nat mused.

"This is different from everyone else's depression. I think it's about Alex."

"Oh yea, I'm sad he's gone...after all I don't have anyone to fight against," Nat said, making it plain he didn't care as much as that.

Iocus fixed him with an angry glare that made Nat slightly worried for his own safety. "YOU still don't get it do YOU!" he yelled, his eyes flaring due to his annoyance about Nat's ignorance. "Fiore isn't sad because she's lost a friend! She's upset because she has lost somebody SHE LOVES!"

Realisation dawned on Nat's face at that moment. "Ohhh right! ...She'll get over it," he said, in an unfazed tone.

Iocus shock his head sadly. "No she won't. Alex meant a lot to her, even at a young age. When he disappeared from her life, she could do nothing but think about him. She told me about him when I asked her why she was sad at one point...I think it made the situation worse," he responded with equal sadness.

Nat was more surprised by his change of tone than anything else at this point. "As I've said, she'll get over it," Nat repeated calmly.

Iocus sighed out of exasperation. "You don't know much about dragonesses do you? If a dragoness likes somebody to that extent, then it means that she...well," he began, before pausing and wondering if it was a good idea to tell him.

"It means she what?" Nat asked, totally oblivious to what Iocus was meaning.

"Never mind. I'd better go see how she's doing," Iocus replied, walking through the doorway into the corridor.

Arriving at the door into her room, Iocus paused to listen in case she was crying. When he didn't hear anything, he pushed the door open. When he saw Fiore lying asleep on her bed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"_At least she isn't so depressed that she wanted to kill herself," _he thought with a sense of relief. When he turned to go, he heard Fiore let out a moaning sound, as if something was pleasing her. Iocus decided to not hang around any long and exited the room.

"So was she alright?" Nat asked, making Iocus jump and look franticly round at him. Nat was leaning against the wall on the side which held the door to Fiore's room. He looked rather uninterested of course, but still wanted to know for the sake of it.

"Yea, she seems to be fine, since she's sleeping," Iocus replied, looking back at Fiore's room.

"Good enough, you see there was nothing to worry about! Now if you don't mind, I think we should get back to training with the rest of them," Nat decided, walking through the corridor and into the room beyond it. Iocus soon followed, slightly less sadly than before.

Fiore meanwhile, was dreaming. It wasn't actually a dream she was in; it instead felt like more of a vision. She didn't register this however, as it seemed too real to be one. She was currently standing in a field that was surrounded by roses and a few trees further on. It looked rather similar to the field from her and Alex's past, except that there was a slightly darker sky over her head.

As she walked through the grass, she felt calmness wash over herself. She sighed as she lay down in the grass and closed her eyes, enjoying a gentle breeze that was passing over. She didn't realise where she was, or why everything felt real to her, she was simply too relaxed to care.

She lay like this for what seemed ages, until something moved towards her. "Please tell me you're not sleeping because of all this?" a voice said. She didn't immediately recognise the voice, so she opened her eyes and saw Alex standing on her left side. He was smiling down at her as he placed a paw on her head.

She smiled as well and reached up to touch his face. It didn't dawn on her that this was just a dream and that he wasn't real. She didn't care though, because real or not, he was with her.

"No, I'm just happy that it's all here. Including you," she said, feeling the scales on his face brush against her paw.

Alex suddenly looked deadly serious. "Fiore, I must tell you that...I'm dying," he announced, shocking Fiore.

"What?" she exclaimed, looking alarmed.

"I don't know what's happing here," he began, looking around before continuing, "but I need your help!"

Fiore was both surprised and confused at this. "How? How can I possibly help you?" she asked in disbelief.

Alex looked sadly at her for a moment. "I don't know, but will you?" he asked pleadingly.

She nodded. "Yes, I would do anything for you!" she said, determination in her voice.

Alex smiled, and the world around them went white. When it cleared, Fiore suddenly found herself in a place she didn't immediately recognise. She looked around and saw a vast ocean around her in all directions.

"Well, this is rather a big change in scenery," she remarked, looking around to try and see anything that would tell her more about where she was exactly. She looked down and was surprised to see a small boat floating passed her.

"Well, that certainly narrows things down a bit," she remarked. She suddenly felt as though she was being pulled towards the boat. Shrugging, she followed this feeling, noticing that the closer she got, the stronger the tugging feeling. Eventually she landed on the boat. When she did, she immediately noticed that her body was slightly transparent and had a blue outline.

"Ok, this is just weird...what's going on?" she wondered, as she began to follow the tugging feeling again. It led her into the cabin of the ship. When she entered the cabin, she gasped. The sight that greeted her had made her heart stop. She saw Alex lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious, in a pool of blood from a deep wound in his shoulder.

She let out a sound which was both a cry and a scream, as she ran over to him. Hoping that the wound wasn't serious, Fiore lowered herself to inspect it. Fear washed over her when she saw that the wound delved into Alex's side, but she couldn't see how far because of the amount of blood.

Fiore's breathing was fast now, as she tried to see if she could help in any way. With sad realisation that she couldn't, Fiore burst into tears.

"How did this happen? How could I let this happen to you?" she cried, looking down and closing her eyes, her voice breaking slightly. Fiore was so upset, that she didn't see her tears landing on Alex's open wound. She didn't notice the wound slowly healing over, or that the blood below her was un-clotting and returning into his body. All Fiore was thinking was that Alex – her one and only true friend, the one that she loved with all her heart and soul, was now dead.

When she dared to open her eyes, there was only a second's worth of view of what had happened to Alex. Just then, she heard someone's voice and it caused her to start drifting rapidly away from Alex's body.

"_NOOO!" _she let out an unnatural scream as she tried to remain with Alex. It was fruitless though. She awoke by violently swinging her claws and tail at the person who had caused the separation.

"Wow, calm down, Fiore!" Nat's voice yelled, as he jumped away from Fiore's claws.

He was a little too slow, as her claws managed to leave marks on his face and hand. Fiore was now on her feet and growling at him. Normally Nat would have shrugged off anything that was life threatening, but seeing a dragoness growling at him like Fiore was doing, was rather different. He quickly made for the door and shut it, before Fiore could attack him.

"I just came to tell you that it's morning and Terrador wants us in the training room," he called from the other side of the door.

Fiore had at this point calmed down and was now coated in a feeling of sadness/depression. "Alright...just tell him I'll be there in a while," she sadly told Nat.

The sound of Nat walking off was heard through the door. Fiore was now sure that Alex was well and truly dead, which made her feel that she had nothing left to live for. She slumped onto the bed, suddenly feeling weak. There was a strong feeling in her which told her to give up, to end her life because of everything that had happened.

She slowly raised her tail edge towards her neck. Dragon's tails always had an appendage of some sort for self defence purposes, but it also served as a way to end their own lives should they need to. She felt the tip of her tail on her neck, she closed her eyes. They were full of tears at this point, because she still didn't want to do it.

She moved the edge of her tail back, preparing for the thrust that would end it all. _"FIORE! STOP THIS MADNESS!" _something yelled inside of her.

"Why? I have nothing to live for, no one to care about, or who would care about me!" she shouted back, ignoring everything around her.

"_ALEX WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO GO LIKE THIS!" _the voice persisted.

Fiore let out a cough/cry as she struggled as to what to do. She decided to listen to the voice and lowered her tail so that it was back around herself.

"_And you still have your brother, remember that, Fiore!" _the voice said, in a softer/calmer tone.

She sighed sadly as she stood up and leaped of the bed. "Yea, I guess I should be happy that I still have him," she muttered, as she pushed the door open. Walking through the silent corridor didn't make her feel any better, as she saw a flash back of herself and Alex together in the corridor. She shook her head and entered the pool of visions room. It was noticeably empty, as Volteer was still in the library, adding to information that he had gained. Cyril was also there, but was using the time to look through his ancestry.

Fiore walked through the door that led to the training room. When she entered, she found Spyro training with his earth element. From what he had been doing, he seemed to be quickly and easily mastering the element.

Nat was also in the room, but was standing at the side watching Spyro train with an expression of boredom. They all looked round when the door closed behind Fiore.

"So you finally decided to join us," Terrador said, sounding a little annoyed.

"Sorry, I just...never mind," Fiore replied, her tone emotionless.

"Blimey, you were a lot more emotional when you awoke and nearly started attacking me!" Nat remarked with an unsympathetic tone, as he flicked his wrists, exposing his hidden blade.

Fiore looked down at the ground sadly. "I miss him," she muttered, looking up and displaying the sadness in her eyes. Terrador nodded in understanding, knowing what it felt like to lose someone that you loved.

"I understand how you feel at the moment, Fiore. But now is not the time to be dwelling on loss. You should use this time to improve your abilities in fighting," he told her, his voice commanding yet slightly sympathetic.

She nodded sadly, knowing that she didn't have a choice in the matter. Sighing, she took her place in the centre of the ring, whilst Spyro exited the ring to give her space. _"Maybe training will take my mind off...him," _Fiore hoped, as a bunch of dummies appeared around her.

She almost immediately charged at them, knocking one of the dummies with so much force that it flew from one end of the room into the wall, and shattered. As Fiore set to work tearing up the other dummies, Terrador noticed Fiore was displaying a great deal of aggressiveness, far more than normal.

He then remembered being taught that sometimes, the loss of someone that a dragoness cares about can often send them into a berserk rage when they are fighting. Something like that however only ever happened when a dragoness wanted a mate, and was displaying her strength. This was all because of a combination of hormones and instincts were making them think differently. His eyes widened when he realised, Fiore was acting like this '_because_'she had lost Alex, who she wanted '_as_' a mate!

Now knowing this explained a lot, particularly when Fiore was hit by a dummy's weapon; she violently ripped it to shreds within a second after she was hit. Fiore was killing the dummies faster than they could revive themselves. She jumped to the right of one and hit it with a fire bomb, which easily destroyed it and damaged a few around it. Anyone who looked at Fiore's eyes would have seen them _burning_with rage as she ferociously destroyed any dummy that came near her. Eventually only one dummy remained, and it looked as if it was trembling at the site of Fiore and what she had been doing.

Fiore began staring down the last dummy, oblivious to everything around her. She pounced at it and tackled it to the ground easily. Whilst she easily destroyed the dummy, no one in the room had noticed a patch of shadow moving rapidly towards her. She only noticed it when it was right behind her. She shrieked when something appeared from out of it and collided with her. She was knocked to the ground and was quickly pined by the thing. She was about to fight back, when she realised what it was...or rather who it was.

Fiore looked up into the eyes of it and couldn't believe what she saw. Staring back at her, were two familiar red eyes. Her heart was beating so fast at this point that the vibrations were visible.

"Is...Is it really...you? Alex!" she asked in no more than a whisper. He smiled at her and his head leaned in closer to her own.

"Of course! Do you know anyone else this handsome?" he whispered to her, before licking her face "The answer of course is no," had added with a wink.

"Alex. How the hell did you escape? And how are you still alive?" asked Nat, who had drawn his guns at Alex.

"Call it luck, as well as love," Alex replied softly, looking down at Fiore.

Fiore's heart was racing at this point and after he said those words her eyes widened, before smiling lovingly up at Alex. Suddenly however, she slapped Alex's face with her paw, scratching it with her claws.

"Ow!" Alex cried out, rubbing his left cheek, where Fiore's claw had left marks. "What was that for?" he asked. Fiore had tears in her eyes at this point and Alex noted how bloodshot they looked.

"Don't ever do that again! And please don't ever fly off like that again! I don't want to lose you!" she cried, grabbing his head with her paws. He was about to apologise, when Fiore rapidly pulled his head towards her own, then meeting his mouth in a kiss. It was a long and passionate kiss and it was fuelled by Fiore's happiness at Alex being alive and with her, as well as due to one or two hormonal drives.

Unfortunately for both of them, they were interrupted by Terrador, who had coughed very loudly, as well as Nat who was making retching sounds, having put his two guns away. Alex immediately broke the kiss, looked round, blushed heavily and leaped off Fiore. Fiore remained on the ground, unexpectedly in a slight daze over what she had just done. She got up slowly, but made sure as to move right next to Alex when she did so.

"So, young dragon, I see you've escaped from Cynder alive. Impressive," Terrador complemented, acting as if the 'little' scene hadn't happened. Spyro was staring at Alex and Fiore with a gormless expression on his face. He was either shocked at Alex's sudden appearance, or that Alex and Fiore had just made out in front of everyone. Sparx was watching them with his arms folded, trying to look composed, despite having screamed when Alex appeared. Alex looked rather sheepish at this point, but regained his composure rather quickly.

"Yea, sadly Ignitus has been captured," he muttered darkly, his expression changing to a serious scowl.

"We knew that as much; now we simply need to train Spyro how to use the destructive force that is earth. Once that is done, it'll be off to confront Cynder and to stop this evil once and for all!" Terrador said in such a way that it sounded motivational to everyone in the room, including Sparx. Alex smiled, remembering how good Terrador was at commanding others when it came to battle.

"Before we get a head of ourselves, there's just one little problem with that plan of yours," he muttered, a hint of smugness in his voice.

"And what would that be?" Terrador asked, interested in what Alex was going to say.

Alex said nothing for a moment; instead walking over to the door, he smiled. The door opened and on the other side, was none other than Cynder herself. No one else immediately recognised her as she nervously walked slowly into the room, her eyes darting franticly around the room.

It only took Fiore a few seconds to realise who she was, but while Fiore wanted to get revenge on Cynder for everything that had happened, she knew that it wasn't her fault. She settled for walking over to Alex's side and trying to look slightly friendly towards her.

Cynder was quick to move next to Alex's side and seemed to be using him as a shield from everyone else.

"Come on, sis! You're going to have to be brave and face them; otherwise how will they accept you?" Alex whispered to her, giving her a small nudge with his wing.

She sighed, and reluctantly walked out from behind Alex. Her eyes wondered over everyone in the room, resting on Spyro for the longest amount of time.

"I think you should all know that this is my sister...Cynder!" Alex announced, getting ready for anyone who might attack.

The reactions to this in the room were mixed. Terrador's widened for a moment, whilst Spyro and Sparx were looking at Cynder in disbelief. Sparx was the first to speak.

"What? So this here is actually the Big, Monstrous dragon that almost killed us?" he asked, though it sounded like he didn't believe what was going on.

"And not only that, but also your sister as well," Spyro added, showing surprise more than not believing Alex.

"Yea, unfortunately you're right. You see Cynder here was corrupted by the dark master and turned into the monster that you recently saw," Alex confirmed, looking down at Cynder, who was looking ashamed of herself.

"But why did he do this to her?" Spyro asked Alex. For once Alex had absolutely no idea, so he looked at him and shook his head.

This time it was Terrador who answered. "Because only a dragon born in the year of the dragon would be able to access the portal which leads to the realm of Convexity, where the doorway to the Dark Master's prison resides," he explained darkly.

A thought suddenly struck Alex. "Doesn't that mean that since I freed Cynder from his control, he no longer is able to be freed?" he reasoned hopefully.

"No, once the portal has been accessed once, it remains open until someone closes it," Cynder said suddenly, surprising everyone in the room.

"So, does that mean that you already opened the portal?" Spyro asked, a little angrily.

Cynder nodded, looking even more ashamed of herself than before. "I-I'm sorry, I've ruined everything," Cynder whimpered sadly, looking down at the ground.

Alex noticed that Spyro, who had only a second ago been glaring at Cynder, was now looking at her with sympathy. It affectively told Alex that Cynder was going to be fine, because if Spyro accepted her, then everyone else would have to. Though looking over at Nat however, Alex got the impression he wanted to kill Cynder right then and there.

"Well, this was enlightening and all, but I think I best if I were to call it a day and settle down for the night," he said, changing the subject quickly.

After a short pause, everyone except Cynder nodded in agreement. They all made their way back through the doorway. Cynder had shot to Alex's side during this and checked to make sure no one was listening.

"Where am I sleeping?" she asked in a whisper to Alex.

"Don't worry, I'll show you," he replied at the same level of volume.

The group all went their separate ways through into the sleeping areas. Terrador didn't go through, instead going to the library to check up on the other two guardians. Nat was quick to enter his room and to close the door behind him. Alex and Fiore stood outside her room, whilst Spyro walked down to his room and Cynder was left standing at a loss.

Alex was about to suggest that she take his room since he wasn't using it. However Spyro suddenly surprised him by turning to Cynder and escorting her into a room right next to his own. Since his room was about five doors away from Fiore's, it did worry Alex slightly about the reasoning for this.

Regardless, Cynder's mood had brightened- if ever so slightly- once Spyro had said this to her. As they entered their respective rooms, Alex looked back at Fiore.

"Looks like it's just you and me," he said. Fiore smiled as she turned and opened the door to her room. Alex walked into the room and heard Fiore follow suit, as she closed the door. He looked back at her and saw her smiling. She suddenly ran up and hugged him. Alex was caught off guard by this, but managed to stay up right this time.

Fiore broke the hug and stepped back from him. "You have no idea how glad I am that you're alright," she said, her voice filled with joy. She suddenly realised that in her dream, Alex had been practically dead, yet he was standing in front of her as if nothing had happened. She looked at his shoulder and saw to her surprise that there wasn't any sort of scar. Alex had noticed that she was looking at his shoulder, so he looked at her with a serious expression on his face.

"Are you wondering why I don't have a mark there?" he asked, startling Fiore. She nodded slowly, surprised that he knew what she was looking for. "Well that's because I was healed," he answered, noting her increasingly confused expression.

"But I thought healing from red crystals doesn't completely remove scars?" Fiore wondered.

"That's why I wasn't healed by them. In fact..." he began, moving so that his snout was only a few inches away from Fiore's, "I was healed...by you!" he whispered.

"What! But that's impossible!" she exclaimed backing away from him slightly.

"No it isn't. Did you have a dream last night where you saw my body lying on a boat, with blood pouring out of a shoulder wound?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Fiore's eyes widened when he asked this. "Y-yes, how...?" she asked, bewilderedly.

Alex sighed, and replied, "In the state that I was in, I was close to death. At which point I felt your presence near me, even though I could not see you there physically." Fiore still looked confused, so he continued. "The reason I know you healed me, was because I heard you crying over me. When you did, I felt as though my wound was being healed and the lost blood was returning to me."

Fiore was now listening intently, wondering exactly what she had done. "But...how did I do that? Tears never do that," she asked.

"I'm not sure how, but I think we should ask Volteer about this. At least he might be able to give us an answer," Alex replied, moving closer to Fiore again. "But for now, let's get some rest...I need it more than ever," he added.

She nodded in agreement. Both of them got onto the bed and lay next to each other happily.

**Yea, it all worked out well. I do hope that you all liked this chapter, but don't hesitate to point out any flaws/errors in this chapter. As for the 'M' rated scene's/content of this story, I'll instead feature it in a different fanfic, one that is specifically designed for it. Anyway please leave some reviews, and I will make sure that the next chapter doesn't take this long to write again. Until then, bye...**


	18. Cynder's Suffering, Spyro's kindness

**Hi everyone. I've managed to write this chapter finally. This chapter has a nice flavour of touching moments and combat. with that said, on with the story.**

**Chapter 17: Cynder's Suffering, Spyro's kindness**

A silent night had blanketed the temple in an eerie quietness. Inside her new room Cynder lay awake. An hour had passed since she had been given this room, but getting settled in it was a difficult problem. There was so much on her mind that, despite the comfy lodgings the temple offered, Cynder didn't feel that tired.

She was still coming to grips with being in control of her life, as well as how to react to people who would inevitably hate her for what she had done. Deciding to take a night time walk through the temple in order to clear her mind, she carefully opened the door and left her room.

Entering the corridor, she heard the sounds of gentle breathing from several rooms. To her relief, this meant that everyone was asleep. She didn't want to have to talk with any of them, nor did she think any would want to. She didn't notice that the door to the room next to her own was open. Walking slowly and quietly through the corridor so as not to wake any of them, Cynder made her way to the main room.

Passing the pool of visions, Cynder entered the training room. She briefly looked up at the large statue of a dragon. She had only just seen it there and she felt a shiver run through her body as she released who it was a statue of.

She could picture how the person who made the statue would feel if he knew that the dragon would eventually become the Dark Master. Sighing, Cynder felt grateful towards her brother for saving her from his corruptive power, but also sorrow for everything that she had done under his control. She shook her head to try and clear it of those thoughts, before heading towards the door behind the statue.

As the door slid open a gust of wind blew through from the outside, causing her to shiver. The night was dark and cold, but held a clear set of stars on the horizon. Cynder wandered out into the platform that jutted out from the rest of the temple. She was admiring the site of the swamp at night. Looking down from the platform, she saw a dozen different coloured lights, no doubt families of insects. She breathed a sad sigh at the thought of family.

In all her years of being enslaved to the Dark Master, she had never once been able to have time to think clearly, or to have time to enjoy the simple things in life. She thought back to when she had been introduced to everyone in the temple only a few hours ago. All of their reactions were different, but it was the way that the purple dragon, Spyro, had reacted. He had at first shown shock, then anger, and suddenly kindness.

Cynder hadn't expected anyone besides her brother to show her any kindness or compassion, yet Spyro had done just that throughout the rest of the day. She wondered if there was any reason behind this, like if he was trying to get something from her. She quickly shook her head, asking herself what he could possibly get out of her, or why he'd want to.

Cynder was so deep in thought that she didn't notice Spyro walking out of the doorway of the temple. Spyro, like Cynder, had found it almost impossible to get any sleep. He was worried about Ignitus, and about what the Dark Master would do if he was released. Deciding to clear his thoughts, he had wandered to the platform and was surprised to see Cynder sitting at the edge, looking up at the sky.

He wandered over to her. She noticed him and turned her head to face him as he walked to her side.

"Can't sleep either?" he asked, sitting down next to her before she could say anything. A warm atmosphere seemed to waft from him to Cynder, making her feel suddenly calm and comfortable.

"Yea, something like that," she replied, looking back up at the sky. Spyro followed suit and stared up at the stars. After a few seconds of silence, he noticed that a collection of stars seemed to form the shape of a dragon. On closer inspection the image seemed to resemble that of Cynder's corrupted form. Almost as soon as he realised this, Cynder shivered. Spyro deduced that it was because of the image, but decided to make it seem as if he thought she was cold. He placed his wing round her, and gently pulled her closer to him.

Cynder was surprised by this, mostly because she was still sceptical about Spyro accepting her. Since it was rather cold around her however, she gratefully snuggled closer to him.

"Thanks," she murmured happily.

Spyro had meant this as a friendly gesture, but soon felt an odd feeling of happiness because of it. He pushed these feelings to the back of his mind, enjoying the warmth that Cynder was generating into his side.

"I'm sorry for what I've done to you. I know I hurt you," she turned her head, so that she was looking up at him.

Spyro looked down at her and saw the sadness in her eyes. "You don't need to apologize to me, it wasn't your fault," he replied, taking a sympathetic tone. Cynder looked away from him for a moment.

"I might not have been in control of myself, but I was still aware of what I was doing." A tear fell from her eye as she sadly added, "It was horrible, all the suffering that I caused! All those people that I killed!"

Spyro sighed and nudged her head back up to look at him, "It's no use dwelling on the past, Cynder. You're free now. You deserve to have a chance to have a normal life with people you care about." He subconsciously placed his paw onto her paw.

Cynder hadn't noticed his paw move because she was too busy staring into his eyes. "But what if... What if I fell to darkness again! What would happen to everyone around me!" she exclaimed suddenly. "What would happen to you?" she said so quietly that she didn't even realise that she had spoken.

Spyro paused for a moment. "If you did fall again, I would do what I could to save you and bring you back. If you were going to die, Cynder, I would do whatever I could to save you," he said, only realising what he was saying when he had finished. He instantly blushed when Cynder's eyes widened.

She was awestruck by what Spyro had said, as she sat looking at him. Here was Spyro, who had every reason to hate her like everyone else, being kind to her and telling her that he'd save her. It sounded too good to be true to her and it took her mind a while to process the information. When it did, she smiled warmly at him and then nuzzled him, much to his surprise.

"Thank you." She reached up and gave him a loving peck, but she simply meant it out of gratitude. Spyro was blushing rather hard now and he smiled back. It was at this point that his eyes' gaze wandered over her body. He noticed- with a sense of awe- that her dark scales seemed to be reflecting the starlight, giving them a semi -shinning appearance. To Spyro, it had to be one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life. He didn't know it, but he was starting to fall in love with her, despite only being with her for a few minutes.

Unknown to him, Cynder was also looking up and down his body, taking in all the details. She herself was doing so simply because she wanted to know what he looked like from different angles. She was taking a liking to him as well, though not in the same way.

They both hurriedly looked away from each other, choosing to look back up at the sky. Neither knew what to say to the other, as the whole situation had confused both of them. After what felt like an age, Cynder stood up off the ground.

"We should get back inside."

Spyro looked slightly relived as he nodded, stood up and followed her back towards the temple. Both of them were silent when they entered the main hall. As they made their way towards their rooms, Spyro glanced over at Cynder again. He noticed that she had been looking at him and he also noted that she hurriedly looked away from him.

Walking into his room, he turned round and faced her. "Well, good night, Cynder," he said, closing the door.

Cynder gave a short sigh and entered her own room. _"At least someone here is kind to me,"_ she thought, as she jumped on the bed and finally fell asleep. She had a rather peaceful sleep, one which she had never had since her corruption. Back then, this was mostly due to her being called on at almost every hour, or else needing to train herself when she had time to spare.

The next day she woke up to the sound of early morning birds chirping away outside her window. Yawning, she got up slowly, stretched and looked out of the window. She immediately saw the bright shape of the sun, as it slowly crawled up through the sky. On the ledge below her a pair of birds perched, chirping to each other happily. Seeing these birds gave her a sense of happiness, happiness because despite all she had done, there was still love and joy in the world.

Whilst she was happily gazing out of the window, the door to her room opened slowly. From the doorway, out poked Spyro's head. He glanced around the room and spotted Cynder looking out of the window. He slowly walked into the room and then shut the door rather loudly.

Cynder jerked round quickly when she heard the door close, assuming someone was about to attack, but calmed down when she saw Spyro.

"Hey, Cynder, I'm glad to see you're awake," Spyro said, smiling in a friendly way at her.

Cynder gave him a similar smile back. "Yes, but can you please try not to sneak up on me like that." Looking back out if the window, she saw that the birds had flown off. She sighed sadly and looked back at Spyro.

"Sorry, I guess I should have realised you'd be on edge," he apologized sadly.

Cynder jumped off her bed and walked up to him. "It's doesn't matter, I just have a habit of attacking people if they sneak up on me. You know...from my time being evil," she looked down sadly.

"Oh, I see. Well, the guardians want us in the main room, so I thought I'd get you before Sparx did," he said, causing her to look up.

"Why would that matter?" she asked.

Spyro looked a little unsure as how to answer, since he knew his 'brother' had already taken an angry attitude to her, due to her trying to kill both of them. "Well...um...put it this way...he doesn't seem too big on the idea of being friendly with you," he decided on as an explanation.

"Oh." Cynder was disappointed that someone didn't trust her. She mentally reminded herself that she had only been free for a day at the most, so it would take time for them all to trust her.

"But I also wanted to see if you were alright." His tone had become quieter and more worried. It was like the tone he had used when talking with her the night before.

Cynder was a little surprised that he was still concerned about her and why he was concerned at all. "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" she snapped back at him, a little too quickly and forcefully.

"I don't know...we should get going though," he reminded her.

Nodding, Cynder followed Spyro out of her room and through the corridor towards the pool of visions room. Cynder felt a small 'pang' of guilt at snapping at him, simply because he was concerned about her well being.

By the time she wanted to apologise however, they'd arrived in the room and were already sat down. She noticed that Alex (who was still in his dragon form) and Fiore were sat next to each other, directly opposite to where she herself and Spyro were sitting. Iocus was sitting next to his sister, looking at Cynder with a suspicious look. This made her feel even worse than a moment ago and it also made her wonder who else didn't trust her.

The three Guardians all stood equally around the 'pool'. Nat meanwhile was just leaning on the wall, still uninterested by what was happening. Sparx was making a point to zoom around the room, settling for moments on the side of Spyro's head that faced away from Cynder.

Looking back and further across the room, Terrador spoke first. "Now that we are all here, it's time to tell you all what you are going to do."

"Since you've said 'you', I'm guessing that means that you three..." Alex nodded at each of the guardians in turn before continuing, "aren't going to help us in the whole _'rescuing Ignitus'_ plan."

"I'm afraid so, that crystal sapped the last of my energy. I fear that my fighting days are over," Terrador remarked regretfully.

"Sounds like you've given up already, old man," Nat goaded coolly, trying to provoke him to react.

"While I might not be in a position to fight, it doesn't mean I've given up," he snapped, growling threateningly at Nat, who simply shrugged. "More importantly however, Ignitus must be rescued, and if possible the crystals must be destroyed," his tone changing suddenly to a calmer tone.

"So do you know where he is?" Spyro asked.

"I have a strong hunch that Ignitus will have been taken to a place known previously as Concurrent Skies," Terrador answered. At the mention of the place, Cynder suddenly looked very guilty and upset. Alex noticed this, but didn't comment about it.

"And that is where exactly?" Nat finally joined in on the conversation.

"It's a fair distance from here; I remember seeing it on the map," Alex answered, not looking in Nat's direction. Fiore had at this point begun leaning on Alex, her head resting close to his on his neck.

"How far is 'a fair distance'?" Nat queried.

"Not sure exactly, but I think a lot further than your devil trigger can last," Alex replied, looking up briefly to smile smugly at him.

"Devil Trigger, what's that?" Cynder asked, speaking for the first time since she had entered the room.

"It basically lets him turn into a demon," Spyro explained, noting that her expression looked suddenly a lot more worried than before.

"A demon!" she squeaked in terror, looking over warily at Nat. He himself had taken note of what they were saying and was grinning rather evilly at the fact that Cynder was afraid of him. It was becoming obvious that Nat didn't like her at all either.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Sis," Alex spoke quickly in an attempt to cheer Cynder up, standing up and causing Fiore almost over balance. She let out a quite yelp of surprise and looked up incredulously at Alex. "Sorry," Alex whispered to her, before he continued as if nothing had happened, by glaring in Nat's direction, "After all if Nat suddenly decides to attack you, I'll make him regret it in ways he could never imagine."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Nat muttered indignantly.

"Life's never fair, and don't make Cynder's life any harder than it already is, she already has to cope with what she was forced to do, even though it's not her fault," Fiore growled, giving Cynder a reassuring/ understanding look as she spoke.

Instead of intervening, the guardians were simply letting Fiore and Alex sort out what was going on. Not all of the guardians agreed that Cynder wasn't to blame, but they all knew that she was different now so they didn't voice their opinions.

"But enough of this pointless argument, I believe it's time for us to go battle some dark forces and maybe save the world while we're at it," Alex added, his tone changing to an upbeat one.

"Sounds good to me, I was getting bored with this conversation any way," Nat remarked in an uninterested tone, walking in the direction of the outer doors as if he'd ignored everything Fiore had just growled.

Alex, Fiore, Spyro and Sparx (who had spent the entire meeting trying not to laugh at how stupid Nat had looked a few moments ago) all made their way over to Nat.

"I'm going too," Cynder suddenly announced, surprising everyone as she followed and stood next to Spyro.

"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked her calmly, ignoring Nat who was shaking his head.

"Yes, I have to make it up for you for saving me," she nodded, determination engraved on her eyes, but when she briefly glanced at Spyro, you would be unsure whether that was the only reason.

"Hey, that's no reason to start throwing your life away, but it might just be enough to redeem you in people's eyes," Alex replied kindly.

"Not to appear as a coward or anything, but I'd rather not go if you don't mind," Iocus said sheepishly.

"Fine by me, it just means that there'll be one less set of paws to help in a fight, let's go," Alex said, walking through the door and out onto the ledge.

A minute later, all six of them were airborne. Nat was struggling to keep up with everyone else due to the fact that he wasn't being given a speed boost by the wind. It also didn't help that he had to keep stopping every ten minutes because he kept going out of Devil trigger state. It would only take a minute before he could use it again, but the constant stops meant that he was falling behind.

It wouldn't have been so bad, but he kept insisting that everyone wait for him instead of leaving him. Alex had grown very tired of just ditching Nat, so he eventually gave in and waited for him. But due to all the delays that he caused, they had to stop to catch some food because of all the energy that had been used up.

Luckily they had travelled far enough so that it was only a short journey from where they stopped to the 'Concurrent Skies'. But as they flew over the landscape, Alex immediately noticed a vast change in the texture. It had rapidly changed from dull brown and rock like, to a very crystal like landscape.

They soon landed in what seemed to be a crystal valley, from their original view in the air. The crystals themselves were a light-blue colour, and some seemed to be giving off lightning. Circular patches of ground were also this colour, which was rather interesting. Sadly none of them were here to sight see. Taking a few steps forward, Alex managed to catch a glimpse of what looked like a castle at the end of the crystal valley. Looking further up, Alex saw that the sky had been completely shrouded in darkness, with only one or two patches being lit up by the lightning.

Fiore and Cynder each walked up to his side, Cynder on his right, Fiore to his left. "A nice place isn't it," he casually remarked, looking down at his sister.

"This place used to be my lair...my home," she muttered sadly, turning her head to face Alex. "I...I don't know if I can do this."

"Don't worry, Cynder, we are all in this all together," Spyro reassured kindly, as he took his place next to her, "we're all here for you," he added in a whisper, though Alex still heard him.

"Ha, you speak for yourself. I'm not here to sympathise witha killer, especially one that has no soul except one filled with blackness," Nat blurted out, sounding completely out of character and showing his deep irritation with Cynder.

Cynder hung her head at this and tears began to fall from her eyes. Alex rounded on Nat, his eyes flaring. He charged at him, using his elemental power to coat his paw into a fist of shadow fire. Nat hadn't even thought Alex would react at all and he was stunned when Alex's fist violently collided with his face.

He stumbled backwards and managed to land on a sharp point of a crystal. The point tore easily through his body, causing him to be impaled on it. Handily it was only a small, thin crystal,and it only pierced Nat's left arm joint.

"Ow...what th-," he began, but was cut off when Alex hit him in the face again. This time he drew blood, but Alex didn't care at all.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!" Alex growled with a rage unlike any he had ever shown before.

"Why are you so angry?" a bemused Nat asked.

Alex was breathing slowly and heavily now, his anger rising with each moment. "Why? WHY? Because she's my sister and if you disrespect her, then you disrespect me," he yelled, brandishing his fist threateningly.

"She's still a killer, have you forgotten what she did to Shannon?" Nat leaped up, pulling the crystal out of his arm.

"That wasn't her fault," Spyro suddenly said, his voice calm and understanding as he looked down at the weeping form of Cynder. "You know as well as I do that she was being used by the Dark Master. There was nothing she could do," he continued soothingly. Alex looked back over at Spyro and after a few seconds he calmed down. Spyro had by this point placed his wing as far over Cynder as he could. She herself had stopped crying and looked up at Spyro gratefully. Spyro then glared up at Nat, who looked shocked by what had just been said.

"Well now, all this was certainly entertaining, but shouldn't we be going?" Sparx said, bringing them all back to their senses.

"He's right. It also looks like they sent a welcome party for us," Fiore muttered sarcastically, nodding at the approaching apes, all of which varied in size.

Nat wasted no time in pushing past Alex, drawing his sword and then charging at the Apes. There were only about five of them when he was running towards them, and it only took a minute of using 'round trip' to take them out.

Whilst he admired his kills, a small, blue lightning golem shambled up behind him. From where everyone else was standing, they had spotted it long before Nat had even started running.

"Do you think he knows it's behind him," Cynder wondered out loud, as the golem swung its fist towards Nat.

"Err..." Alex began, watching Nat with a sense of amusement as he was sent flying into a patch of crystals by the force of the golem's fist, "...I'm thinking that he didn't." Cynder smiled at this, no longer upset from what Nat had said. Indeed, it seemed that she was enjoying the sight of him being beaten.

"Should we help him?" Spyro asked this time.

"Again...I'm thinking that we shouldn't," Alex replied, walking down past the golem, followed shortly by everyone else. Fiore had learnt to just leave Nat to handle these types of things his own way, so she agreed with Alex's decision.

Ignoring the sounds of fighting behind them, they made their way through the valley, encountering apes, golems and what looked like electric eels. During each encounter, they all took separate targets, usually with Alex and Fiore taking on the larger threats, like the golems. Spyro would be the one to take down any apes they found. Cynder, though a little unsure at first, soon helped him fight them off.

Rushing to tackle one that was moving towards Spyro, Cynder used her past experience of battle to quickly kill it. She did this by slashing its throat and then breathing her shadow element on it, thereby killing it.

Looking over at Spyro, she noticed that he was taking on three apes at once. Seeing that he could handle them, she took the time to watch how he fought. Spyro seemed to have adapted well to fighting groups of enemies. He mostly just unleashed either earth or fire onto them, but occasionally he would head butt one into the air, then slam it in the direction of a group. At this time however, he seemed to be clawing, punching and hitting them with his tail.

Cynder was suitably impressed by the way he fought, wondering how he would have faired against her had she not been saved from evil. She was so caught up in thinking and watching Spyro fight, that she didn't notice an ape sneaking up on her. Spyro looked round at that moment and saw it about to strike her.

"Cynder! Behind you!" he yelled franticly.

Cynder looked round and only narrowly dodged the ape's club. She viciously counter attacked and killed it.

"Sorry," she said, surprising Spyro who had thought she'd be grateful.

"What's there to be sorry about?" he asked, a little confused.

"I should have been focusing on what was around me instead of on..." She stopped herself. Since she had been focusing on him, she didn't think it would be wise to tell him that, in case he got the wrong idea. She didn't want him to think that she liked him like that, fearing that he might not be friends with her any more.

"On what?" Spyro persisted, not realising that she had been staring at him.

"Never mind, here come some more," she replied, glad to change the subject as more apes approached.

A few meters away from them, Alex and Fiore had finished off the golem. Since Alex no longer had his sword, he had been forced to battle in his dragon form. Whilst he had leaped from side to side, dodging the golem's attacks, Fiore had watched him. She noticed that he seemed a lot more graceful in his movements than when they both had been practising with each other. S he smiled when they had finished. They both began watching Spyro and Cynder fight the apes.

"Hmm, your sister's actually quite good at fighting, isn't she?" Fiore said, as Cynder gracefully dodged an attack and used her body's momentum to hit an ape to her side.

Alex had originally wanted to make sure that Cynder didn't hurt herself; he soon realised that she was very capable of defending herself. "Yea, you're right about that," he grinned as Cynder suddenly leaped at an ape that was going to hit Spyro.

When she did this, Spyro immediately spun around in shock and saw her behind him, having killed the ape.

"Thanks, Cynder."

Cynder was now smiling with satisfaction at what she had accomplished. "It's no problem, after all you did save me. This is simply a way of getting even," she replied, appreciating the thanks he gave her.

Suddenly a large ape charged at both of them; they quickly darted to the side out of its way. Cynder then counter-attacked it and surprised everyone by unleashing a gust of wind from her muzzle, which she then skilfully used to throw the ape into a patch of crystals.

Spyro was rather surprised at what Cynder had just done, elemental wise. "I've never seen someone use an element like that before, what was that?" he asked.

"That was the element of wind; I've always had that, since my time being evil," she answered.

"Oh, I see...so what else can you do?"

"There will be time for that later, right now we should get going," Alex said, walking over to them with Fiore in tow.

Spyro didn't protest, instead nodding and continuing with Cynder and the rest through the valley. They went further on, beginning to move up on to higher ground as they neared the castle. Soon the whole group entered a large open part of the valley. Looking around, it seemed to be rather deserted and unguarded. Spyro guessed as much, because he and Cynder made their way through the area.

Alex, however, wasn't so sure and was about to warn them, when an electrical barricade appeared between them. As soon it appeared, both Spyro and Cynder whipped around in surprise.

"This can't be good!" Spyro murmured.

Just then a large group of medium-sized apes appeared from hiding and slowly encircled them.

"Spyro, whatever you do, don't let a single one of them harm my sister," Alex growled threateningly, though it was out of his concern for her safety rather than annoyance.

"Hey, I can look after myself you know!" Cynder yelled indignantly, as she and Spyro moved towards each other so that they were 'back to back' and facing all the apes around them.

**Interesting wasn't that. Firstly however, you'll have noticed that I'm having Spyro fall in love with Cynder very quickly. I hope that this isn't unrealistic, but he does fall in love with her very quickly in the games, so I put that into this chapter. I'm also trying to make Cynder more...capable than she is in eternal night. If there's anything that I should do to improve, do please tell me. Anyway, please leave a review and until next time, by...**


	19. Darkness rises

**Hello everyone. Firstly, sorry about the huge gap between updates. I've had so much on my mind over the past few months, and so much happening that I had barely any time to write anything. And then writers block didn't help either. In this chapter, a character dies, and not one you'd expect. With that said, on with the story...**

**Chapter 18: Darkness rises**

The golem swung its fist at Nat, who leaped out of the way. Recovering quickly, he whipped out his hand guns and horizontally crossed them over each other in the type of fashion 'gunslingers' might use.

"Time to die," he exclaimed, devil triggering and causing his voice to become demonic-like in sound. Because of this state, both guns gained a small cloud of cold air around where his hands held them. "Bingo!"

Pulling the triggers on both guns, instead of firing bullets it unleashed pure ice at the golem. Each part of ice was like an icicle in shape and seemed very sharp. These shards pierced the golem through its head which succeeded in killing it almost instantly. Emitting a low groan as the light faded from its eyes, the golem fell over backwards.

Nat stood where he was, surprised at what he had managed. "Ha, that was cool," he said, exiting his devil state. He suddenly laughed and added "Ice...Cool...I made a joke."

Vesica was unsurprisingly not amused. "Just 'cause I'm an Ice sword doesn't mean that you can make ice-related jokes," she muttered in annoyance.

"Aw but why, after all you're such a nice sword," Nat replied.

For a few seconds, Vesica thought that he had just complemented her, which was something he'd never done before. When she was about to show her appreciation however, Nat suddenly ruined the moment.

"Get it 'nice sword', 'ice sword', ha I'm a genius," he laughed, playing on the way he had said the word 'nice'.

This made Vesica regret what she had just thought and start to question whether she was right to choose Nat to control her. Failing to notice the negative vibes that Vesica was giving off, Nat resumed his charge through the valley.

* * *

Back with Spyro and Cynder, both of them had successfully fought off the ambush and had joined back up with Alex and Fiore.

"Well I have to say, I'm impressed with your ability to fight, little Sis," Alex complemented her kindly, as well as reminding her about her age.

"You're as good as I am," Spyro added before she could respond.

"Aw, thanks, Spyro." She gave him a small peck to the face, which caused him to turn his head away bashfully, his cheeks having gotten a lot redder all of a sudden.

Alex noticed this, but didn't show it out right. "Well now, I think it's time that we got going, the castle entrance should be somewhere nearby," he mused, looking around.

Nodding, they all wandered in the direction of the castle like before. Alex could tell that the castle wasn't too far now, because the lightning that struck around it was getting a lot louder.

A few moments later the group arrived at a set of steps. The steps were several meters wide as they ascended up towards a large metal door, which they assumed led into the castle.

"Well, now that we're here, I expect that someone's going to send us a welcome party," Fiore said, looking up at the rest of the castle.

"I very much doubt that, Fiore," Alex said as he began walking towards the entrance. "Besides, with the number that we've already killed, they probably don't have that many left to defend this place." He looked back at her, "So hopefully we will be able to get through this castle quickly and find Ignitus without too much difficulty."

"It's never ever that simple with you, Alex," she replied.

He grinned, "I know. And that's what makes life interesting!" Fiore smiled at this, and moved up next to him.

"If you two are done, how about we get going?" Sparx said, as always sounding irritated and bored.

They both nodded in agreement and made their way into the castle, with Spyro and Cynder following close behind. The group wandered through the door and arrived in a very dimly lit area.

"Well this must be it then, nothing but dank, dark hallways 'til we reach the top," Alex mused as he looked around the room.

"You make it sound so appealing," Sparx remarked sarcastically.

"Unfortunately he's right there. And if the defences are like they were when I lived here, then this is going to be an uphill battle," Cynder said, moving to the front of the group.

As they made their way through the room into a set of corridors, Alex noticed that the corridors led to different parts of the castle.

Eventually, they came across a fork in the corridor. Both routes looked the same and Cynder didn't know which way to go either, so they had no idea which path to take. To solve this dilemma, Alex suggested that they split up and head both ways.

Cynder was rather concerned about this course of action, mostly because she would have to head through the castle, with only Spyro as company. She didn't mean this unkindly when she voiced this concern, but it was still plain that Spyro was disappointed that she didn't want to be with him. Sparx on the other hand didn't care either way.

Needless to say, however, she lost the argument and reluctantly made her way down the first corridor with Spyro and Sparx following after her. Alex smiled to himself, as he and Fiore took the other corridor. He was hoping Cynder would put up with Spyro long enough to realise that she didn't need himself to look after her, when she could rely on Spyro instead.

* * *

The dull and dark interior of the castle corridors gave Spyro an uneasy feeling as they made their way through the castle. The fact that the corridor was sometimes lit up by a flash of lightning didn't help to calm him either. When the corridors were lit up, they seemed to resemble very dark, gothic looking surroundings. Most if not all the walls around them were lined with a black metal, which gave an eerie, unnerving sense about the place.

Cynder was rather silent as they made their way through the corridor into a large open room. She stopped dead when she realised where she had just entered. Around the walls of the room were chains, chains which looked like they were made to bind and prevent a large dragon from moving.

The ceiling held a large purple crystal, which was oddly shaped, as if it was made by hand, not from nature.

Cynder knew this room all too well. It was where she had been forced to live and sleep, always chained up and always under the Dark Master's gaze. This recollection suddenly brought back the painful memories of all the torture she had gone through, all the pain she had been forced to endure as she slowly fell to his dark corruptive power.

All these memories caused her emotional pain and she silently cried. A tear fell from her eye and landed on the stone floor. The sound of the tear splashing on the floor reverberated throughout the room. Hearing the sound, Spyro looked over at Cynder and saw that she was crying.

"Cynder, what's wrong?" he moved to her side. Cynder heard the concern in his voice, but it did nothing to lessen her sorrow. She turned to look at him directly and Spyro saw the sadness on her emerald eyes.

"This room...was where I lived for most of my life under _his_control." She didn't need to say who she was referring to; Spyro knew whom she was talking about.

"I see," he replied sympathetically.

"And this is also where I was kept, so that my mind would fall to his corruptive power," she continued, looking up at the large crystal. The moment her gaze fell on it however, the crystal suddenly began to glow brightly and emitted a quiet-whistling like sound. As soon as this happened, Cynder collapsed onto the floor clutching her head with both her paws, a look of excruciating pain on her face.

"Cynder!" Spyro cried out in alarm, as Cynder suddenly began to writhe around on the floor as if she was being tortured.

"Wow, man, what's going on?" Sparx asked worriedly.

Struggling to control her body as she rolled onto her back, Cynder attempted to speak, only to emit a scream of pain. Her scream seemed to pierce Spyro's very bones and caused him to suddenly feel fear like never before.

Her scream also seemed to cause the sound emitting from the crystal to increase in volume. It soon became apparent that it wasn't a whistling sound, rather the collective sound of thousands of voices. All of these voices seemed to be hurling insults at Cynder.

"_Spawn of evil, be gone and burn in hell for what you've done!" _one voice yelled.

"_Pay for your sins, Cynder, Terror of the Skies!"_ another yelled.

"Please...stop," Cynder whimpered weakly, as her writhing continued, but at a much more painful rate.

"_You devoured innocent lives, now you shall answer for these crimes!"_ a female voice yelled.

"HELP ME!" Cynder screamed, pleading an end to her suffering.

"_You will never walk away from your sins!"_

"_You have no right to live!"_

"_It is a sin for you to be alive!" _all the voice exclaimed at the same time.

Spyro couldn't take any more of Cynder's suffering. Leaping into the air, he unleashed an earth missile at the crystal. The impact of the missile shattered the crystal, ending the source of the voices. Cynder lay still, breathing heavily, tears falling from her eyes. The words that the voices had spoken still rang in her mind. The worst thing about them was that Cynder actually felt as though she should die, and atone for everything she had done.

"Are you alright?" Spyro's voice brought her out of her trance. She looked round, and saw that he had landed next to her. He was very close to her head, and Cynder could see he was worried about her. She quickly got onto her feet, and looked away from him.

"Why do you care?" she asked, her voice etched with sadness. This question surprised Spyro.

"What?" he asked, bewildered as to her sudden depressed mood. She turned sharply to face him, her eyes still holding tears. She glared at Spyro hurtfully.

"Why do you care about me? I'm a monster, I've mercilessly killed thousands of innocent lives, all without a shred of mercy or remorse!" she exclaimed angrily, her eyes blazing. Despite the tears running down her face, she looked incredibly intimidating. Spyro recoiled sharply away from her, suddenly fearful of the sight of her like this. Sparx had at this point hidden behind a chain out of fear.

"Cynder, you're wrong. You are not a monster, because you're free now. And you said yourself that you weren't in control of your actions," Spyro moved towards her, showing no fear.

"So? Everyone still sees me as the 'evil black dragon of the skies'. I know that secretly you do as well Spyro!" Cynder glared at him angrily.

"What? No I don't think of you like that at all," Spyro was taken aback by her accusations, but knew that she was just letting her grief and trauma get to her. Seeing that she was about to respond with another accusation, Spyro continued, "But I can see that you don't believe me. Do you want to know what I see you as, Cynder?"

At this, Cynder looked shamefully away, expecting him to tell her that she was an empty shell, a pawn of evil.

"A friend," he said simply.

Cynder froze when he said this. Cynder was shocked by what she had just heard, as her mind attempted to process what she had just heard.

"_He sees me as a friend. No he must be lying," _she thought furiously. She looked back at him, and saw that he was looking at her with sadness in his eyes. It was at that moment, when Cynder finally realised that Spyro truly cared about her. She suddenly felt terrible for being so angry at him, when he had tried to be helpful.

"I'm sorry, Spyro," she said sadly, looking at the ground feeling ashamed for how she had acted. Spyro walked up to her, so that they were both only a few centimetres apart.

"It's not your fault, Cynder; I know that adjusting to this life is hard," he told her kindly, nudging her head up to look at him, "But I've told you before, I'm here for you Cynder. You don't have to suffer alone, and I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Cynder was speechless. Spyro was continually making her feel as if she was wanted. Compared to her life under the Dark Master, she had never experienced any good emotions like joy or happiness. But Syros words made her suddenly feel these emotions.

"You really do care, don't you?" she breathed, as if she still thought it too good to be true.

"Yes, Cynder, I do care," he replied, causing Cynder to smile weakly. "With all of my heart and soul," he added without thinking. Realising what he had said, blood rushed to his face as he blushed.

"Really?" Cynder asked before he could think of a way to correct his error. He nodded and Cynder felt as though a great weight had suddenly been lifted from her. Inclining her head towards his, she closed her eyes. She felt him do the same, so their heads were touching. At that moment, Cynder felt a sense of calm wash over her.

She knew that he cared for her now, and it made her realise just how much he now meant to her. She wanted to remain like she was with him, uninterrupted by anything. Spyro felt the same way, wanting just to stay with her and enjoy the solemn moment between them. Sadly Sparx had other ideas.

"While I'm sure you want to spend all night like that, we have a job to do," his words broke both Spyro and Cynder out of the moment.

* * *

"He's right Spyro. We need to find Ignitus," Cynder cut in before Spyro could reply, looking away from him. Saying nothing, they all left the room and continued through the castle.

Further in the castle meanwhile, Alex and Fiore were attempting to find the way to Ignitus. The fact that every corridor looked the same didn't help them in their search. As they made their way down an identical corridor to one they'd passed down earlier, Fiore's thoughts began to wonder. Idly looking around, her eyes came to rest upon Alex. She noticed that Alex seemed to be in a bad mood. She moved up to him and affectionately rubbed her neck against his. He looked round questioningly at her when she did this.

"You seem down for some reason, Alex," she said, moving back from him slightly.

Alex checked both ends of the corridor before he answered. "I'm worried about Kumori."

Fiore understood what he was talking about. She was wondering if he was going on this mission to save the world, or just to save her.

"I'm sure that she's ok," she reassured Alex.

He looked back at her and nodded. "I'd like to think that, but something is making me worry about her. I don't think it is normal." His words were spoken in a way that told Fiore he was unsure about the situation he was in.

"What do you mean?" she asked, also unsure.

Alex paused, wondering how he could answer. "I feel as though a part of me is missing. It's as if she belongs completely to me."

"Really? That does seem strange. I wonder if..." she was interrupted by the sound of fighting and gun shots.

"Sounds like Nat's caught up," Alex said, changing the subject. From the sounds they were hearing, Nat was nearby, about a corridor or so away from them.

"Should we go look for him?" Fiore asked, looking in the direction of the noise.

"No, he's likely to shoot us if we sneak up on him," Alex replied. Just then, Nat came running out at the end of the corridor they were in. He turned round, and fired a couple of shots back in the direction he had come from.

"Ok, that's the last time I try to enter a building through the roof," he panted, before noticing both Alex and Fiore as they walked towards him. "Oh and thanks for ditching me back there," he motioned angrily at the wall behind him.

"I figured you could handle a golem, and since you're here it would appear that I was right," Alex replied, trying not to smile.

"Whatever," Nat waved off, as if everything he had just said didn't mean anything, "Anyway, how about we get back to what we are here for," he added, spinning his two hand guns around on his fingers, before placing them back into their makeshift holsters, all in one motion.

"Well this is a first, I mean you normally just want to fight and kill anything that can move, or else want some sort of fancy weapon," Fiore noted.

"Yea, but that was before I realised that killing things non-stop gets boring very quickly," he responded, "That...and the armoury was empty," he added, prompting Alex to roll his eyes.

"If we are done, let's go," he muttered, walking towards a large door that stood out from the others. Entering through the door, they arrived in a large hall. The hall itself was dimly lit, concealing much of it in darkness. At the far end of the room, stood a large ape, which was facing away from them, looking out of the much larger window. Alex recognised the ape from back at Munitions forge.

"So, you've come." Acerbus didn't bother turning around to face them.

"Yea, were you expecting me to just roll over and die on that volcanic island?" Alex asked rhetorically, taking a few steps towards him.

"It would have been a benefit if you had done," Acerbus replied, turning around to face them. "But I do wonder why you bothered to invade this fortress. After all you can't stop the crystal from being charged, nor the Dark Master being released."

"That's not why I'm here," Alex said as a flash of lightning illuminated the room completely for a moment. For that moment, everyone saw that Acerbus held Kumori in his hand, and the amulet around his neck.

"Hey, don't those belong to Alex," Nat blurted out. This caught Acerbus's attention. He turned so that he was facing Nat, and smirked.

"Not anymore, she's in the hands of a more worthy individual," he held up Kumori in a way as to mock Alex.

Alex had learnt from their last encounter and so wasn't goaded. "Worthy! No, you're nothing of the sort," he glared angrily.

"Care to prove that then!" Acerbus challenged, moving into the _Iaidō_ fighting stance (A Japanese sword style involving both sword and sheath).

"Fine by me, but don't think I'm going to be beaten as easily as before." Alex entered a fighting stance, before looking back at the rest of the group. "This fight is mine alone, go rescue Ignitus and stop their plan," he ordered sharply.

Fiore and Nat shook their heads, walked up to Alex and stood next to him.

"Don't you even begin to think I'm leaving you after what happened to you last time!" Fiore spoke with so much confidence and determination, that it caused a smile to appear on Alex's face. Looking into Fiore's eyes, Alex saw that she wasn't going to leave him no matter what he said. Instead of arguing however, he simply gave her a short nod before looking back at Acerbus.

"This fight should be fun, I'm not going to pass it up," Nat smiled in eager anticipation, drawing his sword and pointing it at Acerbus as he spoke. Alex rolled his eyes, somehow knowing Nat was going to get embarrassed.

"Alright then," Alex said simply, before charging at Acerbus with Fiore and Nat in toe.

* * *

Meanwhile on the other side of the castle, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx had arrived in a large open room. Looking up, they saw that the room stretched up so far that the top was concealed in darkness.

"I'm guessing that's where we are going," Sparx mused, flying around the room.

"At the very top should be where Ignitus is being held. There should be a lift in the centre of this room, on that platform there," Cynder nodded towards the centre of the room.

"Let's not hang around then," Spyro said, walking towards the platform. Cynder followed him, until they were both standing on the platform. When they stepped on it, the platform gave out a low whinging noise, and slowly rose up from the floor.

"Hopefully there won't be any distractions whilst the lift rises," Cynder said, almost to herself.

Spyro wasn't listening however. He was looking at her instead and taking in all the details about her. He hadn't had much of a chance to see her as she really looked. Because of this, he was rather surprised at how appealing she looked in his eyes. Despite the dim lighting, he still could see that the light reflected off of her scales, making her seem like a jewel.

It was at this moment that Spyro finally realised that his feelings for Cynder stretched far beyond friendship. What he felt for her, was love. She looked at him, and saw him staring.

"Cynder, when this is all over what do you intend to do?" he asked her.

"What do you mean?" she was taken aback by his sudden question.

"Are you going to remain at the temple once we have stopped the Dark Master?" he moved towards her slightly as he spoke. Cynder looked down, unsure as to where he was going with his questions. In truth, she hadn't considered living at the temple as an option, because she believed everyone apart from her brother hated her. Even if they hadn't outwardly shown it, it was obvious that some were still wary of her. But now that Spyro had asked her if she would stay, she was suddenly unsure about her answer.

She looked at him and saw a trace of hopefulness in his eyes. "I don't know Spyro, originally I was thinking about leaving," she began, noticing that when she did his expression seemed to become disappointed, "but I might stay if everyone is ok with it."

Spyro had a slight suspicion that she was unsure because he was being so kind to her. He smiled weakly and moved so that he was next to her, with only a few inches separating them. When he did however, he felt her tense up, so he stopped what he was going to do.

"Well, I want you to stay," he said, looking directly into her emerald eyes. She looked back at him, and Spyro thought for a second that she looked relieved.

"Then I'll stay, but only if everyone agrees to accept me," she glared at Sparx, who shrugged.

"Fine, it's not as if I could do anything to stop you anyway," Sparx muttered in defeat. Both Spyro and Cynder both chuckled at this. Hearing this, Cynder glanced over at Spyro and smiled when she found him doing the same.

* * *

Alex meanwhile was having a harder time than Spyro or Cynder. Although Acerbus was fighting all three of them at once, his expert use of _Iaidō _sword style, coupled with the summoned swords he called forth, all kept Alex, Fiore and Nat from getting close to him.

In a desperate attempt to get close, Alex encased himself in a cloud of shadow, whilst Nat distracted Acerbus. Dashing towards him, Alex rose out of the cloud close to where Acerbus stood. However Acerbus had anticipated this, having already swung the sword towards Alex's head. As the sword came down towards Alex's head, he instinctively lifted his paws up in defence. He managed to catch the sword. Strangely however, he didn't feel any pain. Nor did the sword's blade appear to be cutting him.

Alex tried to break the grip on the sword with his paw. As soon as his paw touched the handle of the sword however, a flash of light shot out from the sword. Interestingly, only Alex noticed this flash.

"_ALEX! HELP ME!"_he suddenly heard Kumori's voice cry out. He froze when he heard her voice. From her tone, she sounded as though she was in pain. This caused Alex to momentarily lose focus on the battle, which allowed Acerbus to get a grip back on the sword. He quickly used the sword to throw Alex across to the side of the room.

Landing painfully against the wall, Alex barley heard Fiore crying his name. Even when Fiore ran over to him and made sure that he was ok, he barely noticed it because Kumori spoke again.

"_ALEX! Acerbus doesn't want to free the Dark Master. He's intent on becoming a demon!" _she franticly exclaimed.

"_A demon, how is he going to do that?" _Alex asked through the mental link.

"_I don't know, but I know it involves the crystals he's gathered, the ones powered by the guardian's elements," _Kumori replied, _"I'm sorry that I can't help you, master," _she added sadly.

Nat meanwhile hadn't been concerned about Alex; instead he was more interested in battling Acerbus. Dragging the blade of his sword along the stone floor, Nat ran towards Acerbus. Swinging his sword upwards, Nat's blade locked against the opposing sword's blade. Sparks flew from where the blades had locked, as both Nat and Acerbus fought for control of their deadlock. However just as Nat was about to win, Acerbus smirked and used the amulet's power to create a sword behind Nat. Before anyone could warn him, the summoned sword pierced Nat's back.

He let out a cough, spewing up blood as he did and letting go of his sword. This had been what Acerbus had intended, for he grabbed the sword with his free hand, swung his other sword round and sliced across Nat's chest with it.

"What a waste of time," Acerbus muttered as he walked away from Nat, who had collapsed onto one leg.

Nat staggered a bit, trying to stand, and produced his two hand guns. "Die!" he muttered simply, pulling the triggers and firing directly at Acerbus's head. Not even bothering to turn around to acknowledge the attack, Acerbus summoned two swords, which hovered around his head. As the bullets flew towards him, the swords crossed in mid air and deflected the shots.

"How pathetic," Acerbus motioned with his hand, causing both swords to shoot towards Nat. Unfortunately for Nat, he was too slow at dodging the swords, and was pinned to the wall by them, which had impaled him through both his arms.

"Oh come on!" he exclaimed in exasperation.

Acerbus suddenly threw Vesica at Nat. The sword impaled him through his heart. This surprised everyone because the sword like that would normally try to keep its master alive. But then Alex heard her voice.

"_You are no longer worthy to control my power," _her voice sounded scorned, like she herself had been betrayed, _"You never deserved to control me!" _

"Vesica...Why?" were the last words Nat muttered, before he became motionless. The second he did however, a bright light briefly erupted out from him. It only lasted for a few moments, but it was enough to signify that he wasn't alive anymore.

"Well well, this is unexpected isn't it? I would never have imagined that a mystical weapon could disown its master and kill him at another's request," Acerbus gloated gleefully as he retrieved the sword from Nat's limp body, when the light had faded. He also grabbed Nat's lifeless body as well, and threw it over his shoulder. Walking back over to the window with both, he paused to look back at Fiore and Alex. "Now that I have all that I need for the ritual, you two are nothing but a waste of time," Acerbus smirked evilly.

He drew both swords up at the same time, and slashing vertically with each sword, Acerbus smashed the large window. Not looking behind him, Acerbus then summoned two swords, which flew towards Alex. Fiore quickly unleashed a stream of fire at them, reducing them to ash before they hit Alex. This was enough to distract her long enough for Acerbus to be able to escape by jumping out of the broken window. A second later, Acerbus flew up on a dread-wing, still carrying the body. He then flew the dread-wing up to the topmost tower of the castle.

"Now we know where to go, we must avenge Nathaniel's death," Alex growled, his gaze following the dread-wing's flight. He got up gingerly; making sure nothing was broken. He hadn't been aware of the fighting between Nat and Acerbus, because Kumori hadbeen speaking to him. What she had told him shook him to his very core, for what Acerbus was planning was far worse than what anyone could have known.

"We have to stop him. If he completes the ritual he spoke of with those crystals, than the Dark Master will be free." Fiore spoke suddenly, breaking Alex's train of thought.

"That's not his plan. No he's planned something far worse," Alex looked truly concerned for the first time since coming to this world. Looking over at Fiore, he saw the frightful anticipation of what he knew was being planned. "I think he's planning on becoming a Demon!"

Fiore's eyes widened with shock. "What? But how is that even possible?" she asked.

"I think it involves the two swords and Nathaniel's body, Kumori told me that much," Fiore was even more surprised by this news.

"Wait, you still trust _her_, after she was taken by _him_," she was suddenly concerned about whether Kumori was trustworthy or not. Alex looked away from Fiore, and gazed out of the broken window.

"The words she spoke to me were truthful. I don't know how I knew this, but I know that she is right," he looked back at Fiore, who in turn was looking sadly back at him. "We should get going."

Fiore nodded and they both leaped out of the window and began to fly in the direction of the tower.

**Well that was interesting wasn't it. Interestingly, since Nat's half demon, we do have to wonder if he's actually dead. You've also probably noticed that Spyro and Cynder are getting very close to each other emotionly. There aren't that many chapters left in this story. Don't expect a fast update for the next chapter, because I have a lot of work to do in the coming month. Anyway, please review this chapter, and until next time, by...**


End file.
